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4.1 The microscope

Using the base distance of 15.6 km between Les Pléiades and Le Grammont as a reference, you will remember that :

At station n°1

it was the actual distance of 15.6 km.

At station n°2

it represented the distance within the solar system, from the Sun to Pluto.

At station n°3

the base represented the distance between us and the closest star to the Sun: Proxima Centaury.

A new giant leap now takes us to the heart of our Galaxy. The base distance Pléiades-Grammont now represents the distance between us and the centre of our Galaxy. On this scale, the 150 million or so kilometres from the Earth to the Sun are the only two points visible in the microscope when magnified 10,000 times.