To "sketch" the orrery, a model was built out of Mechano and a USB video camera was used to take some videos of it. An AVI video was also made of the model. See the Mechano model for particulars.

19 July, 2000 -- The second mechanical design did not show parallax but rocked the plane of the ecliptic. To correct that situation a series of diagrams were drawn using the model presented on page 342 of Geocentricity.

4 August, 2000 -- The third mechanical design corrected the problem with the second, but does not correctly carry the solar system (the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars as aligned lower left to upper right) properly in the annual motion. The simplest correction is to use a chain drive with one gear affixed to the base, and the other to the mechanism driving the planets.

By the Fall of 2000, the first prototype was ready:

Orrery viewed from behind the sun on the first day of Winter.

Orrery seen from the Vernal Equinox on the first day of Winter.

Then we put it throught its paces. (Video is 34MB.)

In 2004 the first portable orrery made by Paul Norwalt was unveiled.

B.A. articles about the orrerys