Star Axis

[9][10][3] Art historian Thomas McEvilley places the work in the lineage of monuments of archaeoastronomy such as the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge, El Caracol, Chichen Itza and the 15th-century Ulugh Beg Observatory.

[11] Curator and writer Klaus Ottmann has described Star Axis as "a summary of Ross's lifelong pursuit of the dynamics of human interaction with light and the cosmos.

[21][22] Star Axis is a complex architectural sculpture that is roughly eleven stories high, one-tenth mile wide, and composed of earth, granite, sandstone, concrete, bronze and stainless steel.

[13] When a viewer enters the Star Tunnel at bottom, the aperture at the top appears to be the size of a dime held at arm’s length and frames the smallest circumpolar orbit of Polaris corresponding to the view in the year 2100 CE.

[5][2][6] The Star Tunnel is entered through an enormous excavation of two 30-foot-tall, curved sandstone walls rising up to an elliptical opening that traces the path Earth's axis draws throughout precession.

[27][2] He spent the next five years making drawings, consulting with astronomers and engineers, and searching the American southwest for a place within open, vast land that suggested "standing at the boundary between the Earth and the stars.

While driving on backroads of a private ranch, he was approached by a cowboy on horseback whose father owned the vast expanse of land; he soon secured the use of a 400-acre parcel with the owner, W.O.

Culbertson Jr., a former state representative, cattle rancher and member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, who to Ross's surprise, sparked to his idea for a naked-eye observatory.

[5][2][13] Ross has contributed funding to Star Axis through sales of his other artwork, the support of patrons like Virginia Dwan (a sponsor since its inception), and donated building materials.

[6][5][2][28] In 2017, Ross sold a large portion of his Manhattan loft to partially finance the nonprofit Land Light Foundation, directed by O'Bryan, which has raised money for the project and will maintain the site for perpetuity.