Terrible photo, but this is an interesting sculpture and — unfortunately — I was wearing sandals and wasn't willing to walk in the wet grass and weeds for a better angle with the setting sun. (I have *some* boundaries for taking photos.) I wish I'd understood the astronomical significance of this installation when I was there. Hmm, since I'm posting this almost 3 months late, the fall equinox is approaching…
From the nearby plaque: “Set in the upper quadrant of the rim is a circular opening that each noon allows a shaft of light to fall on the concrete surface below. On key days at the start of each new season that dish of light encircles bronze plaques set in the concrete and inscribed with the coming season. ‘Gyrator’ thus uses the movement and position of the sun to mark both the daily gyration of the earth and the annual gyration of the earth around the sun.
“‘Gyration’ is set to cant at the exact angle as the latitude of its site at Giant City State Park. As a result its top-mounted ring sights on the North Star. Around that point of light gyrate the other stars each night.
“The sculptor of ‘Gyrator’, Stephen Luecking, is a native of Southern Illinois.”
Retired economics professor (“dismal scientist”). Married 40+ years to the love of my life; we have two grown daughters, both married, two granddaughters and a...
![Sigh. [Travel-day]](https://media.365project.org/1/9428160_bfilmqru48_sq.jpg "Sigh. [Travel-day]")