The Desktop Planetarium

Englische Version des deutschen Artikels "Das Tisch-Planetarium" 212.TPL

Pre-cut cardboard kit for a classic armillary sphere showing the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets and fixed star sky above and below the horizon, for each day of the year and for each location on Earth.

The classic

This type of classic armillary sphere has been used as the standard instrument for observer-centered astronomy for over 2,000 years. With the tabletop planetarium, the movements of the sun, moon, planets and stars above and below the horizon can be shown and made understandable, for every day of the year and for every place on earth.

Convincing mechanics

The meridian is adjustable to all latitudes from the North Pole to the South Pole. The ecliptic shows all the yearly positions of the sun, with date and degree scales and the areas of the zodiac constellations and signs. The hour ring features displays of the true local time, day and night lengths, and twilight hours. Along the moving lunar orbit, one can see the wandering nodes and the areas where solar and lunar eclipses occur. The planetary spheres can also be moved as desired. 
Using our complementary book screw set, the rings and stand of the tabletop planetarium can be assembled so that it can be disassembled and reassembled at any time.

A little hint

If you are looking for a handout for the tabletop planetarium and don't want to wait until we publish a current one. For the previous versions of our current tabletop planetarium, there was already an accompanying Handout (until now only in german), which we are happy to make available here for download free of charge. The earlier cardboard kits of the tabletop planetarium had a very similar structure. The year tables in this old handout are no longer up to date, but most of the information can be easily transferred or researched on the Internet. Have fun with it.