Tag: stars

The Universe mosaic at Coronado High School!

The Universe at Coronado High School is so awesome. I’m speaking of the mosaic archway that shines with our Earth, planets, moons, comets, nebulae, stars and galaxies.

As students move through the cosmos, they are reminded that “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known…”

I saw this incredible, extraordinary work of mosaic art during my visit to the San Diego Writers Festival earlier this month. The Universe was created on the Coronado High School campus in 2009 by student artists, under the direction of award-winning Visual Arts teacher Laura Hill.

“THE UNIVERSE”

WE DEDICATE THE UNIVERSE TO KARL MUELLER WHOSE SUPPORT SHINES ON, LIKE THE MOON, AND THE STARS, AND THE SUN — 2010

STUDENT ARTISTS – THEY’RE OUT OF THIS WORLD

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A star lands in Escondido!

What’s that star-like sculpture sitting on the grass near the box office of California Center for the Arts, Escondido?

It’s *!

The cool creation, named * (pronounced star), is a 30 foot diameter great stellated dodecahedron created by Escondido’s own Glass House Arts. According to posts on their Instagram page, * appeared at Burning Man last year! If I understand correctly, the sculpture was called MOOT (Matter Out of Time) back then, and said to be a time machine!

By night, 30 programmable LED floodlights illuminate the fabric sails, transforming the piece into a glowing beacon. I saw * in the daytime during my visit to the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, and thought it was pretty cool as it was!

The sculpture will be on view through May 17, 2025. It celebrates Escondido Arts, Culture & Creativity Month!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Tower of Ten Billion Stars stands in San Diego!

A very unique sculpture can now be approached by the public on San Diego’s waterfront. More construction fences have come down at the new Research and Development District (RaDD) complex!

The Tower of Ten Billion Stars is another work of monumental art on what is called the RaDD Artwalk. You can spy the narrow oblong sculpture standing strangely on one end, by looking south from Broadway, east of Harbor Drive.

The creator of this shimmering “tower” is Lindy Lee, a Chinese-Australian artist. As its official description states here, it stands as both a beacon and wayfinder.

Hundreds of small holes in the sculpture’s side allow the passage of bright daylight. The holes shine like visible stars in a silvery sky. They seem to form constellations. Stars–like the North Star–have been wayfinders since ancient times, right?

I’m not sure why it’s a Tower of Ten Billion Stars. There are 100 to 400 billion stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. And there are between 100 billion and 2 trillion galaxies in the Universe.

Perhaps this curving tower is like a tiny, tiny, infinitesimal sliver of the inconceivably vast and mysterious Cosmos.

I walked around the sculpture this evening and took some photographs. I love those reflections of palm trees and nearby tall buildings!

(I also love how “beyond boundaries” can be read nearby. Astronomers can only theorize. The words are actually in reference to a World Design Capital event being held at RaDD.)

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!

Creative fun at San Diego Museum of Art!

At the San Diego Museum of Art, you can do more than walk through its amazing galleries. You can create amazing art, too!

Yesterday, during my visit to Balboa Park, I stumbled upon two art-making workshops at the museum.

A table was set up on the grass of the museum’s outdoor sculpture garden. Participants in this Community Art Workshop would use geometry and compass to design their own birthdate star marker. The cool markers have an antique appearance, and depict a person’s birthdate and corresponding constellation.

This workshop will be repeated on Saturday, October 19th.

Next, I was kindly permitted to view a Book Binding activity inside the museum library.

According to the SDMA website, participants explore Islamic book binding techniques and the practices of codex creation by engaging in folding, wrapping, decorating, and binding a book.

This Community Art Workshop is inspired by the astrolabes on view in Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World, a special exhibition on view at The San Diego Museum of Art September 7, 2024–January 5, 2025.

If you’d like to create your own art at the museum, keep an eye on their event calendar here. You’ll find future opportunities!

Next month there’s a chance to create a Jasper Johns-inspired work of art!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Stargazer at SDSU celebrates Kumeyaay culture.

Stargazer is the title of a sculpture located in San Diego State University’s Campanile Mall, not far from the Koester Memorial Sundial. Which seems appropriate. Our sun is the nearest star.

The sculpture was created by artist Johnny Bear Contreras, who is a tribal member of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians in northeastern San Diego County. Through his award-winning art he is dedicated to keeping the Kumeyaay heritage alive and thriving. The Kumeyaay people have lived throughout the San Diego region for many thousands of years.

On the Stargazer plaque, Johnny Bear Contreras speaks the words: “Come listen with us, there are stories to be heard. Come and gaze at the stars with me, they are always there.” The word Stargazer, in the Kumeyaay language, is Uwiiu kwellyap kurr.

The public art is part of the SDSU Kumeyaay Living Land Acknowledgment project, which seeks to instill a deeper appreciation and celebration of Kumeyaay history, art and culture.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Space Day amateur astronomers in San Diego!

Members of the San Diego Astronomy Association participated today in the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s 19th Annual Space Day!

The local amateur astronomers gathered on the grass of Pan American Plaza in Balboa Park, in front of the museum, and observed our sun through a variety of telescopes.

As I walked nearby in the late morning, I spied telescopes of every size pointed skyward toward the sun, which was still hiding behind “May gray” clouds.

I paused and spoke to several of these friendly astronomy hobbyists. Solar observation was their activity on this Space Day, and telescopes fitted with special filters could provide magnified images of sunspots, the sun’s corona and solar flares!

I was told how there are thousands of amateur astronomers around the country and world, and how their efforts often help to further scientific knowledge. When distant stars are seen to slightly wobble over time, or when their light’s intensity as seen from Earth periodically changes, it can be an indication that they are orbited by planets–exoplanets very far from our own solar system!

The members of the San Diego Astronomy Association possess an enthusiasm that is infectious. I could have spent half the morning absorbing fascinating information.

How can you not be excited, peering out into the awe-inspiring Universe–a vast, vast, incredibly vast Universe that includes the nearest star: our Sun!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

The brilliant Stellarium: 100 light-years across!

Do you know the friendly gentleman who plays the didgeridoo in Balboa Park? That’s Mitchell Walker.

He loves astronomy. He’s super creative. He never stops dreaming. That’s how he managed to shrink a volume of space 100 light-years across and fit it inside a plexiglass cube!

Mitchell’s one-of-a-kind, incredible Stellarium shows all of the stars within 50 light-years of the sun, placed in their correct spatial positions. That makes 166 stars in our stellar neighborhood. (Mitchell is now playfully calling his unique cube SITH–Stars in the ‘Hood!)

The colors of his tiny illuminated stars are based on spectral classification: the Morgan-Keenan system. Press a button and you hear a recording made by Mitchell describing his Stellarium.

I first blogged about The Great Stellarium Project over three years ago. You can see a smiling Mitchell and learn more about his brilliant creation here.

Since then modifications have been made to the Stellarium, including a visible ultraviolet light.

Today I heard that more improvements are coming!

During Stars in the Park this evening, Mitchell showed me his detailed plan to have each star light up individually with a touch of a button. That way the position of a particular star can be seen in relation to others and to our sun.

Mitchell starts with a dream. Then he makes it come true.

What are your dreams?

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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How to almost touch the stars.

Stars.

I just finished writing another short story. It’s titled The Highest Seat.

This very small work of fiction concerns stars and how one can almost touch them.

The unusual concept behind the story arose from something a friend mentioned. We were talking during my Sunday visit to Balboa Park.

The story is based a little on truth, and much on imagination. If you’re a dreamer, you might like it.

Read it here!

Map of the Interplanetary Confederation in El Cajon!

Perhaps you remember a past blog post where I shared photos of a UFO mural outside the Unarius Academy of Science in El Cajon. Or another post that included a photo of a large flying saucer on the roof of an unusual automobile that I spotted in Coronado.

Well, during my weekend walk through El Cajon, I paused outside the Unarius New World Teaching Center to read various displays in their windows.

The first thing that caught my attention was their Map of the Interplanetary Confederation, with its 33 planets that form a spiraling vortex emanating from a spiritual sun. And how in 1973 Uriel contacted the leaders of these planets, learning of their Master Plan.

Another display concerned the lost civilization of Atlantis, and the coming arrival of the Space Brothers, advanced scientists who will teach humankind interdimensional physics.

Fascinating, to say the least!

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Stars, constellations and one night in a sidewalk.

Walk along the west side of Highway 101 in Solana Beach, a short distance south of Plaza Street, and your curious eyes might see the night sky in the sidewalk. If you aren’t careful, you might plunge downward into bright stars and constellations!

This public artwork celebrates the City of Solana Beach’s incorporation on July 1, 1986. The star map underfoot shows what one would have seen gazing up into the night sky at a minute past midnight on that date.

I had some fun with these photographs, gradually increasing the contrast. Be careful! You might find yourself tumbling through space!

(Curious about that colorful mural in the distance? It’s titled Myths at Play, and you can see closer photos and learn more about it by clicking here.)

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

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