Stage 3 - Investigation 23/01/10

The first ever recalled orrery was in 250BC although during that time, people had a different view and only knew of 5 planets around us. On a website it says; "The device imitated the motions of the sun and the moon as well as the five planets known at that time." A roman poet called Cicero said that it represented the moon and could even show eclipses around a short period of time. It wasn't accurate as it only had 5 planets, and during this time, no-one really knew of anything in space, and had no knowledge of how Earth existed, and were very religious during this period, meaning they weren't really interested in our solar system. From the photograph, it looks like the orrery was made from a stone-like material, and maybe carved with some sort of utensils. This would have been because they did not have any other materials or skills of which to use them with. However, the orrery does look like it would have taken a long time to make.

An orrery was made in 1712 by an english clockmaker called George Graham . It was a construction representing the Earth moving by clockwork and it was very precise with the Earth spinning on its axis and with its moon all orbiting the Sun and because of George Graham, we now have the word 'orrery'. However, the orrery couldn't be that accurate as they were yet to find out exactly how many planets were in our solar system and of they're mass relative to each other.

The largest orrery was built in 1744 and its still in use today. It was built into the ceiling of someone's living room, and the materials used include; wooden tyres, disks and nails. It is all very accurate with each planets time taken to move around the Sun. These materials were used probably because of availability at the time and the tools they had, for example they wouldn't have had a welder, therefore no metal could be used.

Nowadays, orreries are used widely in primary schools to help children understand space and planets. Also, some keen astromonists/scientists/geographer's like to have an orrery in their home or at their desk at work.

Orreries range in price from £10 to £1000's based on the accuracy, size and materials used to make it.

Stage 1 - Meeting with Client 13/01/10

Our client is a teacher from Sarisbury Junior School and 4 year 6 pupils gifted and talented in art. Together they had come up with some ideas that I wrote down such as: a treasure chest for plays, an orrery and a mosaic of their logo for school. Our client had some specifics that she told us like sizes and uses and we all kept that in mind. I asked 3 questions to get more information from the client so that when we have our next meeting, our designs will be relevant to her requirements and ideas she has in her head.

After the meeting, we discussed ideas we all had which included; a rotating Sun for the orrery, a treasure chest with a rounded or flat lid and a mosaic using lots of different materials, like beads, or acrylic or sweet wrappers, etc.

Stage 2 Preparation 20/01/10

Jas and I are now working together as a pair to create an orrery. An orrery is a model of our solar system so below I have written a table of each planet and researched on the internet using secondary research how far each planet are to the Sun. Furthermore, I have tried to complete a scale in order to work out how long the overall orrery is going to be. However, it seem more difficult than that! Below is the table I made and as you can see, shows 3 different scale sizes that I could use. But, as the Sun is so big compared to some of the smaller planets such as Pluto and Mercury. Because of this, I have come to the conclusion that the planets cannot be scaled down exactly. Instead, using the research Jas did of the materials, I looked up spheres made from wood to use as planets and I think that if we get 5 size balls, they can replicate the size of the planet roughly to another planet. For example: Mercury, Mars, and Pluto will all be the smallest ball shape whereas Jupiter will be the biggest, and Uranus and Neptune in the middle.

Planet	Distance from the Sun	Size of planet scaled down (a lot!)
Mercury	36 million miles	4.9 (9.8mm) 0.98cm
Venus	67.2 million miles	12.1 (24.2mm) 2.4cm
Earth	93 million miles	12.7 (25.4mm) 2.5cm
Mars	141.6 million miles	6.7 (13.4mm) 1.3cm
Jupiter	483.6 million miles	142.8 (285.6mm) 28.5cm
Saturn	886.7 million miles	120.6 (241.2mm) 24.1cm
Uranus	1,784 million miles	51.3 (102.6mm) 10.2cm
Neptune	2,794.4 million miles	49.1 (98.2mm) 9.8cm
Pluto	3,674.5 million miles	2.3 (4.6mm) 0.46cm
Total	9,961 million miles	402.5 (80.5mm) 8cm

I have also sketched a few designs on paper to show our client. These include; materials used, stand shape, planet line, sun position, etc and we have come to these conclusions together as using secondary research (internet), these designs will fit the criteria needed and will not be too difficult to make. We have also had to think of pricing and availability when we think of our materials. I feel I did well today as I got a lot done, and thought of all the aspects we need to in order to prepare for the making of our orrery. To improve, Jas and I could of written all our ideas on a mind map rather than talknig to each other about our ideas.