dimanche 22 mars 2015

Orrery

To be more specific - The Copernican Orrery. Hence the lack of planets.



Although this week has been about the Solar eclips, it is just a coincidence that I have made this model. Like my previous threads, this kit was bought in Bremen as a Christmas present. This is the last one ;-(



The kit is published by Astro Media in Germany with instructions only in German. I have made other kits of theirs and because they aren't buildings, I needed English instructions. I therefore visited AM's UK site and found that instructions in English can be downloaded for most of their kits. This kit would have been impossible without them.



The kit contains a bewildering list of accessories including 6 sheets of thick die cut card. 12 Sheets of thinner card and one page of paper parts. Other items include round wooden sticks, steel pins, wooden globes and a Neodymium magnet. It seems that this magnet is quite exotic and can be found in hard disks! There are other bits and pieces and the one that stands out is the LED glow globe.



The instructions are split into various sections with parts identified by a section letter and number. There are strict instructions about reading each step completely. I quickly discovered how important this is - many steps have a bit of a sting in the tail.



Within a few steps, I realised that one page of parts was missing. Although we had bought the kit in Germany, I emailed the UK distributor. It was a pleasant surprise to find that they were very helpful and the page was sent the same day. Thank you Andreas!



Most of the model is made up of discs of various sizes - the largest about 12 inches and the smallest a quarter inch. They are composed of the grey cards with larger printed cards - more like pulley wheels. These are all set on various hard paper tubes, some glued on and others left to turn. The last section covers the addition of the round rubber bands. The final one is twisted into an 8 shape to ensure the Earth spins in the opposite direction to all the others (neat!)



I was quite convinced by the end that it wouldn't work but found that the movement was a bit stiff but operated perfectly.





You will find a moving version at http://ift.tt/1LKJe2e and http://ift.tt/1N2R5U8



If you want something a little easier, there are "how toos" on Yahoo.



Cheers



Mike




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