Solar system, to scale

Our house has a 44 foot hallway down the center that follows the roof ridge beam. I thought it would be cool to make a scale model of the solar system that ran the length. Kinda get a little perspective on our little corner of the universe.

I found this cool site that lets you enter any size for the sun, and it tells you the relative size and distance for each planet. I entered 1/2 inch for the sun, and this is what I got: 

• Sun - At the start of the hallway (1/2 inch diameter)
• Mercury - 1 ft 9 in away from sun (tiny)
• Venus - 3 ft 3 in away from sun (tiny)
• Earth - 4 ft 6 in away from sun (tiny)
• Mars - 6 ft 10 in away from sun (tiny)
• Jupiter - 23 ft 3-1/2 in away from sun (1mm dia)
• Saturn - 42 ft 9 in away from sun (1mm dia)

Saturn just barely fit in the 44 feet, and the rest of the planets seemed much too far to worry about. 

• Uranus - 85 ft 11 in
• Neptune - 134 ft 9 in
• Pluto - 177 ft 0 in

Stopping with Saturn seems like a decent model. I don't think the rest of the planets would be critical to getting the sense of the vast scale. 

I found some pins at a craft store. Big-headed ones for Jupiter and Saturn, and really small-headed ones for the other planets. I used a Nerf Bullet Ball for the Sun. The next step is hauling out the step ladder and sticking them in the ceiling at the right distances. I can already tell it's going to be cool. Just thinking about that tiny Earth being 4-1/2 feet from that little yellow sun is blowing my mind a little.