Four times a year, at noon local time, this sculpture circle in the middle of Central Riverside Park lights up with a colorful glow.
The sculptures are actually a solar calendar, designed to direct the sun’s rays into strategically placed glass stones set into the ground. When the sun shines through an eye of the limestone slabs at sunrise, sunset, and high noon on the first day of each new season, a sun beam is meant to cast on to the medallions in front of their respective slabs.
Nicknamed “Stonehenge, Jr”, these megaliths are made up of limestone, glass, metal, and tiles, and were created in 2003 by Wichita artist Steve Murillo. Instructions for the calendar appear on one of the rocks. A deep blue mosaic depicting constellations adorns one of the largest stones. Horoscope mosaics adorn several of the boulders and feature gods, goddesses, and symbols that resemble a map to the planets and stars.
Unfortunately, the calendar doesn’t work quite as well as originally intended, due the consideration (or lack thereof) of Daylight Savings Time. In the Fall, Spring, and Summer, the stones are lit at 1pm rather than noon.