Solar system orrery

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Project purpose:

Clarifying the cosmic clockwork of our solar system

Customer:

Koninklijk Eise Eisinga Planetarium

Background:

This project was originally started as a passion project, but was quickly picked up by many online media outlets and was eventually adopted by several international planetariums. We are particularly proud of the prominent place it has in the Royal Eise Eisinga planetarium in Franeker, the Netherlands. The oldest still working planetarium in the world!
This interactive resulted from the idea to present our complex solar system in a clear, easy and playful manner, so that learning about it became accessible for anyone.

Audience:

General public

Solution:

Techniques:

UI Design
Animation
Development

Process

Research

Concept

Design

Development

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The interactive was designed with the goal to clarify how the planets in our solar system move around the sun. In a simplified graphical presentation the planets are seen orbiting the sun at a relatively high speed. The user is encouraged to grab any one of these planets, drag it around the sun manually and experience the orbit periods of the other planets as they are driven along their orbit at relative speeds, uncovering the ‘interplanetary clockwork’. This simple, physical interaction is the essence of the infographic. The user has a direct influence on what he sees, allowing him to play and discover a 'feel' for the planets and their relations. Movement of these planets is linked to a timeline that we use in our calendars. One earth orbit is linked to a year, which is divided into twelve months. This way, the planet positions for pretty much every day in our history and the foreseeable future can be explored easily.

Result

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This interactive infographic caught quite some attention and led to several publications on popular websites such as Gizmodo, io9 and Scientias. Eventually it was adopted into the museums of several international planetariums. But mostly we are very pleased to see that tens of thousands of people have since played around with and learned about our solar system.