This image has been edited to show the cone that is embodied in the Viewer - placing ones eye at the apex of the stepped, conical seat one can grasp the whole circular course, through the sky and below the ground, traced out by the Centre of the Galaxy each day as the earth spins upon its axis.
There is nothing to see at the centre of the galaxy because it is a black hole, which is so dense that it does not even allow light to escape - we only know there is something there from the behaviour of stars nearby, as they swing around it - but our astronomical consultant thought it was good to be reminded that there are stars not just in the sky but beneath our feet as well.
After finishing the design we asked poet Carolyn Jesse-Cooke to write a short verse for cutting into the step/seats, and were delighted with these lines:
If the galaxy is a lake,
these steps are the ripples
ringing from a secret stone
dropped in the middle
Photographer: Colin Davison