A Place In The Mind Brought Real Or Nearly

South, Male

[myfairylily]

[c0ppelia]

the eise eisinga planetarium in franeker, the netherlands, the oldest working planetarium in the world. located inside the former home of eise eisinga

[c0ppelia]

the eise eisinga planetarium in franeker, the netherlands, the oldest working planetarium in the world. located inside the former home of eise eisinga

[beauty-funny-trippy]

[myfairylily]

[ltwilliammowett]

A maritime stil life, by Charles Cerny, 1960

[ltwilliammowett]

Equatorial sundial with compass and mechanical minute display (watch), by Johann Martin Willebrand, c. 1720

[heaveninawildflower]

Watch (circa 1790). Case: gold, pearls, enamel, silver set with diamonds and opal. Movement: with diamond endstone.

Workshop of Wetherell & Janaway (active 1785–94).

Images and text courtesy The Met.

[nocturlabium]

Armillary Sphere Rotation, Marilyn MacDonald

[steelhipdesign]

I won an auction recently - 12 gorgeous empty antique/vintage pocket watch cases.  I wanted to use resin and embed the planets - unfortunately that resulted one of the cases being permanently stuck to a wood board when the resin leaked through a seam.  So I thought I’d try something different with this one.  

It’s a pretty simple design - the case, two large clock gears and then the brass swedge.  All the small planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are on the inner ring followed by the giants Jupiter and Saturn on the middle ring and finally, Uranus and Neptune on the outer ring. It doesn’t automatically move - no clockwork or electric movement.  The glass does come off and the swedge (with the planets) can be gently rotated.  

It’s designed to be ornamental but it is robust enough to wear it as a pendant or unique fob piece with the glass crystal on.  It’s available in my etsy store.

[magictransistor]

Muhammad Mahdi al-Khadim al-Yazdi. Safavid astrolabe, c. 1675.

[artemisdreaming]

Astrolabe and Astrological Volvelle, Italian, Later 15th Century

Place Created:Italy Accession Number: 1924-0/part Brief Description: Mater, rete for about 36 stars, rule. On the reverse is a disc with 8 pointers for the aspects surmounted by 7 discs with pointers for the 5 planets, sun and moon, and a double pointer for the lunar nodes. Primary Inscriptions: Unsigned and undated Provenance: Presented by Lewis Evans in 1924. Collection Group: Lewis Evans Collection Material: Brass Museum of the History of Science

[ltwilliammowett]

Diptych Dial with compass, by a Tucher Workshop, Nuremberg, c. 1600

A diptych dial is a type of sundial that gains its name from the two hinged leaves which open like a book. As with other sundials, the diptych dial uses shadows cast by the sun to tell the time. Like many of its type, this dial could be adapted for different latitudes, a useful feature for a travelling merchant. On the inside of the upper leaf is a table showing the latitudes of a number of European cities.

These types of dial were made in Nuremberg in the 16th century by a small number of specialist families. This one was probably made by the Tucher family. Made from ivory, these were intricately decorated and expensive personal timepieces generally afforded only by wealthy merchants, captains or nobility.

[modernizor]

1852 Vuillemin Astronomical and Cosmographical Chart

via www.etsy.com

[mapsdesign]

Tavola Prima. Libro Terzo by Urbano Monte (1587)

[ltwilliammowett]

This globe was produced by the prolific German mapmaker Johann Baptist Homann (1664–1705) in around 1700. The globe is housed in a leather-covered case which has charts of the north and southern celestial hemispheres pasted onto the inside.© British Library

The globe itself is hollow, and inside of it is a tiny armillary sphere (a model of the solar system) with a band containing the 12 zodiacal constellations, and a miniature sun at its centre.

Miniature ‘pocket globes’ began to be produced from the second half of the 17th century. Small enough to fit inside a pocket, they were designed to function as curious and educational objects in ships or universities rather than as serious practical devices.

[dystopia-arts-girls]