Eisinga Planetarium
The Eisinga Planetarium is the oldest working model of the solar system and the largest mechanical planetarium in the world. It was built by Eise Eisinga in Franeker from 1774 to 1781 after a mass panic broke out in the Netherlands in 1774 that the planets would be lined up that year and that there would be cosmic collisions. Eise Eisinga wanted to dispel such concerns with his model in the future.
The model is on the ceiling of his living room and is driven by a pendulum clock using several weights. This shows not only the planetary movements (up to and including Saturn) in real time on a scale of one millimeter to one billion kilometers, but also sunrise and sunset as well as moonrise and moonset via clocks attached to the wall; the moon position, the zodiac signs and the date are also displayed.
literature
- Ludwig Christian Lichtenberg (ed.): Report in magazine for the latest from physics and natural history , Volume 1, Gotha, 1781, p. 97 ff. Google Books
Web links
- Official website (German, Dutch, English, French)
- Eisinga Planetarium In: atlasobscura.com (English)
- Hidden treasures: Eise Eisinga Planetarium In: nature.com (English)
- The Eise Eisinga Planetarium (by Jürgen Morawietz) ( Memento from June 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 53 ° 11 ′ 14.1 ″ N , 5 ° 32 ′ 38 ″ E