The Dyer observatory in Nashville is connected to Vanderbilt University and is used now for research, outreach and education. It is built on the highest point in the area, 5 miles from the City Centre. The area is oak wooded, and full of wildlife. A trail connects it through to the Radnor Lake State Park
The Star Chamber has been built from 200 tons of limestone rock to create a 12’ diameter circular room, dished and plastered white. The roof is an octagonal dome of oak logs topped with a metal plate and a 2’ diameter circular lid, which can open to the night sky.

The rock which covers the chamber is shaped like a spiral galaxy, one of the arms of which leads the visitor into the black hole of the interior, where with the door closed, the sky is slowly revealed, projected onto the floor and walls via an aperture in the top.

So during the day, the chamber works like a camera obscura, the image of clouds and tree tops are projected on to the white dish-shaped interior via an aperture and interchangeable lens. In addition, a calibrated aperture, off-centre at the top, will project a wedge of light onto the interior, into which the sun will appear each day for ten minutes at midday. Over the course of a year the sun will trace an Analema; a figure of 8 marked out in glass sunk into the plaster. The sun traces this pattern because the earth’s orbit is elliptical rather than circular. Where the figure 8 crosses are the equinoxes, while top and bottom mark the winter and summer Solstices. The interior will therefore act like a sundial and calendar.

At night the top can be opened revealing a circle of stars, which astronomers at the observatory will be able to predict for any given night.

Outside several standing stones also align to the rising and setting sun at the equinoxes and Solstices. Over time it is hoped to make more alignments with the moon and stars. So the entire work demonstrates the earths relationship to the sun and beyond to the universe. The feeling of the whole work, both inside and out is of rooted ness to the earth while at the same time being directed at the stars. Its vortex form mirrors the pattern of blood flow in the heart.

See a short video on the making of Star Chamber.