UPTOWNflavor

A new park was opened in East Harlem in honor of astronaut Dr.Ronald E. McNair.

The one-acre park contains items that show the size of the solar system’s planets in proportion, ranging from Jupiter, a gaseous giant, represented by a 77-foot-8-inch granite ring circling the park’s green artificial turf field, to Pluto, the barren block of ice that has lost its place as a planet. It is represented by a circle 15 inches in diameter.

The play equipment, including a climbing set that was based on the spaceship in the film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” features various space-related gear, including minitelescopes. The park also has a piece illustrating the phases of the moon, two spinning machines that are about as close as a child will come to the stomach-churning nausea of space flight, and a spray shower in which water spouts from a concrete moon.

Source: New York Times :: Related: Daily News :: CBS :: Newsday ::