Just plain neat

[SeaCat]

This website is just plain neat. I just wish you could set the time as well as the date and then watch the time elapse.

http://dd.dynamicdiagrams.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/orrery_2006.swf

Cat

 

[Tyro999]

I see it's a post-Pluto ejection version. Is nothing sacred? [Insert outraged 60-mumble y.o. harrumph here. Sigh.]

 

[MatthewVett]

Beautiful. I just wish it played the Blue Danube Waltz.

 

[oggbashan]

I like the mechanical Orrery devices that did the same thing with clockwork.

They are magnificent Steam Punk objects.

Og

 

[stephen55]

It's fascinating to use the Tychonian (is that a real word?) Orrery and trace out the path of the planets. The paths remind me of a toy I had when I was a kid. It was called a Spirograph and you used it to trace out amazing patterns.

http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/socaldevgal/WindowsLiveWriter/Spirographs_8D1C/image_3.png

What's also fascinating to me is that Tycho Brahe, perhaps the world's greatest astronomer of the pre-telescope era, actually believed that Earth was in the center and that the sun, along with Mercury and Venus orbited Earth.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I like the mechanical Orrery devices that did the same thing with clockwork.

They are magnificent Steam Punk objects.

Og

and here's Joseph Wright of Derby's painting of the scene...

http://www.derby.gov.uk/LeisureCulture/MuseumsGalleries/ArttreasureTheOrrery.htm

 

[Tio_Narratore]

It's fascinating to use the Tychonian (is that a real word?) Orrey and trace out the path of the planets. The paths remind me of a toy I had when I was a kid. It was called a Spirograph and you used it to trace out amazing patterns.

http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/socaldevgal/WindowsLiveWriter/Spirographs_8D1C/image_3.png

What's also fascinating to me is that Tycho Brahe, perhaps the world's greatest astronomer of the pre-telescope era, actually believed that Earth was in the center and that the sun, along with Mercury and Venus orbited Earth.

and the Spirograph still can be had, Stephen. My children did, including a pocket-sized travel version, and now my grandkids are enjoying the "toy."