The tour of the Planetarium was amazing. I was expecting to just see some guys living room with hanging planets. The museum itself was cool. There were so many little things to look at and it was very interactive. The room where we learned about how Elise Eisinga made a living making wool yarn. It was interesting to see he did have the most extravagant career, but was self taught in everything he did.
However when we saw his living room with the planetarium I realized this was something special. The planetarium did everything; all the planets moved, it was still telling the date even in 2016, the moons phases, when the sun would rise and set. Also, everything above the living room was jaw dropping. All the intranet gear work that had to be done by only Eisinga and his father. The lady that gave the tour of the room was very sweet to. She always had a smile and she really knew her stuff. It was cool how she said she grew up in Franeker and when she was a little girl she would come in once a year to see where the plants were. She gave the process of how often the weights needed to be re-pulled and how often the whole system had to be cleaned. In all, I believe we learned a lot from that tour and have a better appreciation for what Elise Eisinga did in his living room.
I was also amazed at how the planetarium worked! It was really neat to see the gears and pendulum upstairs.
ReplyDeleteI was also amazed at how the planetarium worked! It was really neat to see the gears and pendulum upstairs.
ReplyDeleteI found this site incredible and I was amazed that it still works today. I didn't realize how much information the planetarium would have since I haven't been to a planetarium since I was a kid and none that were as cool and beautiful as this one!
ReplyDeleteI also really appreciated that the exhibit also was able to track the eclipses and track so much more than just the month, day and year. It makes it that much more amazing that someone could create something so advance and still have it be working to this vey day.
ReplyDeleteThis planetarium was incredible. The amount of effort put in to create it was so flawless that even now, hundreds of years later, it is still operating. Really great experience overall.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of the above! Being an engineering major myself, I can't imagine taking on calculations of that size! If he were to be off by even a few millimeters, the timing of the whole planetarium would have been off as well. I was also really impressed with how well it has been maintained. It really speaks to the quality of his craftsmanship that the planetarium is still fully functional.
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