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orrery

astronomical model
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Key People:
George Graham

orrery, mechanical model of the solar system used to demonstrate the motions of the planets about the Sun, probably invented by George Graham (d. 1751) under the patronage of Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery. In use for several centuries, the device was formerly called a planetarium. The orrery presents the planets as viewed from outside the solar system in an accurate scale model of periods of revolution (with the Earth completing a year’s rotation in about 10 minutes). The planets’ sizes and distances, however, are necessarily inaccurate. See also planetarium.