Back أوريري Arabic Мадэль Сонечнай сістэмы Byelorussian Planetari mecànic Catalan Orrery German Planetario mecánico Spanish Planetario mekaniko Basque Planétaire French Orerij Croatian Orrery IG Planetario meccanico Italian
An orrery is a mechanical model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons, usually according to the heliocentric model. It may also represent the relative sizes of these bodies; however, since accurate scaling is often not practical due to the actual large ratio differences, a subdued approximation may be used instead. The Greeks had working planetaria, but the first that was a planetarium of the modern era was produced c. 1712 by John Rowley[1]. He named it orrery[2] for Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (in County Cork, Ireland). The plaque on it reads "Orrery invented by Graham 1700 improved by Rowley and presented by him to John [sic] Earl of Orrery after whom it was named by at the suggestion of Richard Steele."
They are typically driven by a clockwork mechanism with a globe representing the Sun at the centre, and with a planet at the end of each of the arms.