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Orreries—mechanical models of the Solar System and its motions—are found everywhere. They appear in paintings, on computers, across natural landscapes, and in museums all over the world. The more you look, the more you find, yet their significance is often overlooked aside other great astronomical inventions. This book reclaims the history of the orrery, offering a fascinating look into its evolution over the centuries. With a particular focus on London society and clockmakers, it weaves together historical narrative with practical know-hows and scientific fact, showing how the orrery changed from a fanciful toy to a high-tech instrument to a vessel for art and education. The first edition, Orrery, explained what an orrery is and how it got its name. This revised edition goes several steps further, tracing the instrument back to the time of Ptolemy and forward to planetariums and star projectors. In addition, it features new sections on how to construct your own orrery at home. This book will appeal to anybody interested in astronomical mechanical devices, scientific instruments, horology, or the history of clocks.
The large masonry instruments designed by Sawai Jai Singh and erected in his five observatories in the early eighteenth century mark the culmination of a long process of development in astronomical instrumentation. But what kind of astronomical instruments were used in India before Jai Singh's time? Sanskrit texts on astronomy describe the construction and use of several types of instruments. Are any of these extant in museums? Such questions led me to an exploration of nearly a hundred museums and private collections in India, Europe and USA for about a quarter century. The present catalogue is the outcome of this exploration. This catalogue describes each instrument in the context of the r...
The fifteen papers collected in this volume are related to the authors investigations into the history of astronomical instruments in India. The history of astronomical instrumentation in India is dominated by two mutually contradictory - yut complimentary - currents: on the one hand the resilience of certain archaic instruments that held sway for long even after they had become obsolete; on the other, Indian astronomers receptivity to exotic instruments from other cultures. Hence the title of the volume: The Archaic and the Exotic.
Four distinguished historians of Asian science examine the creation of some remarkable early scientific instruments.
Modern comprehensive review of the formation, astronomy, and structure of Saturn and its ring system, and observing techniques for amateurs Very latest detailed theories and physical descriptions How to observe and image the Saturn, its moon and ring, using a variety of telescope apertures and magnifications