Earth, Moon, and Sun direction mechanical orrery
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This desktop orrery tracks the Moon's position, Earth's rotation, and the direction of the sun!
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Model information
- Source
- Printables
- Category
- Physics & Astronomy
- License
- Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial
Summary
This desktop orrery accurately simulates several elements of the Earth, Moon, Sun system. More specifically:
- For every 27.43 rotations of the Earth, the Moon completes one rotation
- The Earth is properly inclined at a ~23° angle
- The scale of the Earth (at 6cm) and of the Moon (at 1.5 cm) is accurate
- For every year, the Sun-direction indicator completes one full revolution (indicated by red arrow)
- The Earth, Moon, and Sun all rotate/revolve in the proper direction
The gears used are 10T, 14T, 60T, and 64T along with a three miter gears, and a 1T gear driving an 80T gear to indicate the sun direction. Additionally, there's a one-to-one rubber band link required to drive the Earth.
Materials Needed
For the axles and rotational parts, you'll need various thicknesses of brass piping (2mm, 3mm, and 4mm) -- especially for the central axis, you'll need nesting sizes. I used brass piping purchased at a local art supply store. Additionally, in order to add the keys to the tubes, I soldered on small pieces of wire and then filed them to shape. Finally, a bit of superglue is required occasionally to keep parts together and rigid.