Sunday, 2 February 2014

Looking For An Orrery For Sale

By Jayne Rutledge


An orrery is a mechanical portrayal of the solar system which shows the relative movement of planets to the sun and each other. When you see an orrery for sale you may want to compare it to others on the market to assess its actual value. There are many factors to take into consideration and for true comparisons they should all be looked at.

Depending on the condition, what it is made of and the smoothness of the movement you may find that values vary quite a lot, but this is only half the story. Size and the amount of detail will also make a difference. There are also many versions of orreries and they begin with just the sun the earth and its moon, becoming more detailed and can include any number of other moons and planets.

These were originally made for scientific use. To be able to clearly see the movement of the planets in relation to the sun and each other and demonstrate it with a moving model. It is interesting to realise that at the time some early ones were built, not all of the planets, let alone moons we know now, were recognised or known.Therefor older orreries would not have include these anyway.

Originally they were called planetariums but that word has now become more widely used to describe the light shows in large domed rooms, which depict the night sky. Now they have many names which describe ones with certain groups of planets. So it might be worth knowing which style you prefer to help cut down your search.

The idea is that the mechanism shows the movement of moons around planets and planets around the sun. They also includes the spin of each planet and moon and the tilt of each on their axis. This makes them very complex and building them takes a lot of skill.

As it is geared for each planet to move correctly, then it also shows how the planets become quite separated at some times, while at others they are quite close. It can be clearly seen when moons cast shadows on their planets and when eclipses are to happen. They are often driven by clockwork so that you can watch the cycle unfold.

When you consider that both Jupiter and Saturn have over 60 moons each, a fully detailed version would be a very large and expensive item, so only certain features are depicted in different versions. They are usually not perfectly accurate either with orbits being in whole rotations while true orbits are not that accurate. The vast differences in sizes of the planets and their orbits also means that they are rarely built to scale..

So now when you see an orrery for sale, you will be much more aware of what you are looking at and the limits of these scientific and amazing items. You can identify what really interests you and be sure that you spend your money on the right thing. Maybe deciding that something small made of a more valuable material like silver fits your home better, unless you want something larger to fit a bigger space.




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