Celestial spheres

May 2, 2003 4:59 PM

This guy can build an orrery for you. Or you can make your own armillary sphere. These two devices are quite possibly the most elegant and beautiful scientific instruments ever created.
posted by WolfDaddy (10 comments total)

Lovely, but I'll stick with Celestia.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 5:05 PM on May 2, 2003

Of course, when searching to see if we'd had orrery links before, I misspelled orrery (as orerry) and thus missed this thread. Damn you Brits (because "orrery" was thus named after an Earl of Cork and Orrery)!
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:06 PM on May 2, 2003

Did I just say Brits? Sigh. I know better.
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:09 PM on May 2, 2003

Confusingly, it's in the British Isles.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 5:22 PM on May 2, 2003

this is the one I have, from a maker in Boulder. It's lovely. I also like the tellurians.
posted by obloquy at 5:33 PM on May 2, 2003

So cool. I have been wanting one of those for the last couple of years. It is a real pain to figure out what they are called when you have no idea. My coworkers had no clue what I was going on about. I cannot remember what I had to Google to get a fix on the name.
posted by thirteen at 5:39 PM on May 2, 2003

I'm more of an Astrolabe man, myself.
posted by electro at 7:28 PM on May 2, 2003

Wow, electro, me too! In that case, I'll repeat my comment from the last orrery thread:

Y'all can have yer orreries...
I. WANT. AN. ASTROLABE.
posted by Zurishaddai at 7:49 PM on May 2, 2003

Fascinating stuff. Thanks, WolfDaddy.
posted by plep at 7:28 AM on May 3, 2003

I can't find the prices on any of these items.
Is it one of those, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" things?
posted by j at 8:25 AM on May 3, 2003