Incredible handmade orrery

Arkansas artist Eugene Sargent was commissioned to make an orrery, a mechanical system that demonstrates the motion of the planets in our solar system. The just-finished device is absolutely marvelous. Make sure you follow the link to see the detail photos. From Sargent's project page:

The 6 planets and sun and moon are made of glazed porcelain... The gears are bronze. I cast the blanks first, cleaned them up in the lathe, and the little milling machine did the rest. The main shaft of the moon drive train rides on 4 sealed bearings. At present, I don't even use CAD software. All G-code was generated by my own C++ programs.

Link to Sargent's page, Link to posts about the orrery by the people who commissioned it (via MAKE: Blog)

[#1 posted by Takuan , January 23, 2008 12:38 PM]

Exquisite work.

Has anyone made a mag-lev orrery yet?

[#2 posted by gabrielm , January 23, 2008 12:52 PM]

Only 6 planets? Is he making a statement on Pluto's behalf?

Very impressive none-the-less!

[#3 posted by Jeff , January 23, 2008 12:53 PM]

A mag-lev orrery? Why yes, I use super-cooled materials to create super conducting spheres and move them about with slight fluctuations in the current, timed with an atomic clock, of course. Not.

Reminds me of my first orrery, which I made for my fifth grade science fair. It even had a little enterprise orbiting Earth. Gosh I was a nerdy kid.

[#4 posted by Cpt. Tim , January 23, 2008 1:10 PM]

i'm still on a quest to find a decent orrery.

the ones usually aimed at schools are a lot of times too clunky or unsightly, others are just far too expensive.

this one is gorgeous.

[#5 posted by macisaguy , January 23, 2008 1:10 PM]

why isn't the Earth in the middle?

[#6 posted by skarbreeze , January 23, 2008 1:49 PM]

@ #5MACISAGUY

Man you got a good laugh outta me on that one :) thanks for the smile this far away from Friday!

(added irony - I for some reason saw the MAC at the start of your name, and randomly thought 'good game, only a Mac user could really be that self absorbed')

[#7 posted by Antinous , January 23, 2008 2:08 PM]

Jeff,

At age 10, my cousin made a working electric eye out of stuff that he found in the kitchen. He now annihilates anti-matter for a living. Really. Somewhere there's a third grader creating a Lego anti-gravity generator.

[#8 posted by macisaguy , January 23, 2008 4:57 PM]

Skarbreeze...

I try. And I'm going to assume you meant good name, and not good game...? And while I am indeed a Mac user, it also is my first name. And a good one as you said. Glad you enjoyed the joke!

[#9 posted by surlyben , January 23, 2008 5:50 PM]

#2 Gabrielm
It's traditional for orrerys to only include the naked-eye planets plus the Earth and Moon (which is often not geareed in a six planet orrery). I suspect that the tradition started because the first orrery was built before the discovery of Uranus/Neptune/Pluto... (The other traditional orrery is just the Earth/Moon and the sun. In this case the moon is usually geared.)

[#10 posted by dculberson , January 23, 2008 6:22 PM]

Gorgeous. Here's a video of the creator and his orrery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w56smGCCiKI

[#11 posted by Beanolini , January 24, 2008 1:28 AM]

One of the nominations for this year's Bram Stoker Awards is a spooky story involving an orrery.

[#12 posted by kelly18michelle , January 29, 2008 11:12 AM]

hey, my sister made the film this came from! everyone should check it out and hear what the artist has to say about his work. it's really good. love you, big sis!