I’m a fan of orreries. These little models of our planetary bodies and orbits are truly fascinating and have captured my mind ever since I saw the big mechanical one featured in the movie The Dark Crystal. Give me any orrery and I’m happy. Big mechanical ones, tiny electronic ones, I don’t care.
The Illusionmanger reached out to us to show us his version of the concept, with this palm sized orrery. Combining laser cut wood, toothpicks, and a tiny stepper motor, The Illusionmanger has created a wonderous little desk toy.
With an ESP32 as it’s brains, you can program this to have all kinds of different display modes. It also has a nifty web interface allowing you to toss in any date and it will move the planets to their respective positions.
There is a full build tutorial available on instructables so you can create your own!
