Ferguson's Orrery

“This machine is so much of an ORRERY, as is sufficient to shew [sic] the different lengths of days and nights, the vicissitudes of the seasons, the retrograde motion of the nodes of the Moon’s orbit, the direct motion of the apogeal point of her orbit, and the months in which the Sun and Moon must be eclipsed.”

- James Ferguson, 1764

This is an interpretation of an orrery built by the Scottish Astronomer James Ferguson in 1750. The original does not survive, but there is much information about it in Ferguson's writings.

We've posted about Ferguson and his Orrery before, and you can read more information about it at our /museum page.

Watch this space! And you'll see a lot more about these fascinating little devices.