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When the gas station closed in the late 1980s, the steel and plaster structures designed by local commercial artist Lewis Nasmyth fell into disrepair.

Yet another section covers solar-inspired art, including a set of incredibly detailed sunspot paintings by the nineteenth-century British engineer James Nasmyth; derived from his own observations, they portray the texture of the Sun’s surface as eerie and almost organic.

An 1860 painting of a sunspot by engineer James Nasmyth.Credit:

James Nasmyth, the British engineer and amateur astronomer, produced what looked like impressive photographs of the Moon back in 1874.

In fact, the photos were of detailed plaster models of the lunar surface that Nasmyth built from careful telescope observations.