fbpx

How do you measure how blue the sky is?

divider

A piece of public art in the centre of Ljubljana is a monument to the blueness of the sky.

The Cyanometer is an art installation which is included within the framework of Green Ljubljana. It stands on Plateau Ajdovščina on Ljubljana’s Slovenska cesta and was designed by Martin Bricelj Baraga.

A cyanometer is a scientific instrument that was first invented by Swiss physicist and alpinist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure: he wanted to create a device that could measure the blueness of the sky in order to predict the weather

Ljubljana’s cyanometer measures not only the blueness of the sky, but also air quality, which is why it is linked up to the headquarters of the Slovenian Environmental Agency, in Bežigrad, Ljubljana. The three-metre high structure takes photographs at intervals, which are then uploaded to a website so the colour of sky can be compared with Saussure’.s colour scale. In keeping with the Green Ljubljana theme, the installation is solar-powered of course.

The Cyanometer will be in its location until the end of 2016.