Bought an orrery last week on the bay of damnation.... it was one from the piece-part magazine issue a few years ago... all there but not working and never had worked.... anyway, after stripping it down the issue became obvious so I fixed it, reassembled the gear train with all the right screws in the right places (which is what the problem was) and tonight after dinner I spent another half hour reattaching the planetary arms and planets and set it running... on the fastest speed it was obvious that Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus were all moving OK, and by leaving markers under their positions and leaving it to run for 20 minutes I was able to confirm that Neptune, PLuto and Eris were also moving, if imperceptibly slowly... remember that nothing we've found beyond Neptune has completed an orbit since we found it, and Neptune only finished its first last year... 165 years after being discovered.. anyway, woo... I'm the God of planetary modelling....
I'm impressed. What a fantastic thing to have!
I'm impressed - (after looking up what an orrerry is :-[ !)
Well Done. I had to look up Ceres and Eris thought they were moons,
Mine is one of these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH8JXXEY6PE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH8JXXEY6PE) though that isn't my one...
Fantastic! I envy your orrery ;D
Seriously though, I do. I have wanted one since I was a child interested in the planets.
The nearest I have ever been able to afford has been the odd globe or two over teh years. Nothing special. An old schoolroom globe, some other smaller ones of various ages, but nothing like this. I could watch them for hours. :)
Enjoy!
I can remember creating human orrery on the cricket pitch at school.