Bruce Munro's Star Turn installation in Bath tonight

We we wandering back from the shops at lunch time, and what did we see? A geodesic dome with a bike inside. Naturally we went to take a closer look...

The dome in question is a one-night-only installation called Star Turn, and it'll run through the night tonight at the Holburne Museum in Bath. It's the brainchild of artist Bruce Munro, best known for his Field of Light installations at the Eden Project, the V&A and Harvey Nick's, and the mechanism itself has been brought to life with the help of designer James Augustini. The dome contains a static bike (a Specialized Sirrus, fact fans) connected to a mechanical contrivance that rotates five arms around the dome. Each arm is a helix shape with tea lights at regular intervals, and a wheel on the end. When the bike is ridden the arms move around the dome and the helices spin about their axis, creating a human-powered light show. When it's up and running, it'll look like this:

Riders will take turns through the night to pedal the bike, with each rider spending an hour in the dome. “I hope Christmas shoppers will enjoy Star Turn, and the merry-go-round of light will bring a smile to faces at Christmas time” says Bruce. “I also hope to get people donating – I can’t overstate how much Help For Heroes deserves our support.”

At the moment there's no plans to bring the Star Turn dome to any other locations, but now that it's built it would be a shame if it didn't get used again... "We'll see", was Bruce's enigmatic response. Munro's Field of Light is also currently resident at the Holburne, with the installation running until 8 January and entry is free.

Obviously you'll need to be in Bath or thereabouts to actually see the installation tonight, but if you want to make a donation to Help for Heroes to support Bruce's effort and a worthy charity, you can do that without leaving your desk... http://www.bmycharity.com/h4h