Emerald Firenze

A planetary orrery showing a heliocentric view of 6 planets plus Earth's Moon

Emerald Firenze, an analog watch face, is a planetary orrery which shows a heliocentric view of the solar system (as it was known in Galileo's day, with only 6 planets) plus the Earth's Moon.

The view is from far above the Sun's north pole; the planets move counter-clockwise as time moves forward (and the Moon similarly moves counter-clockwise around the Earth). Only the angular positions of the planets are represented; the relative distances and sizes are wildly out of scale (as they must be in a practical sized display: If Saturn's orbit was shown at the same scale as the Earth's the watch would have to be about 5x larger than it is. If the Sun image was shown at the same scale as the Earth it would be almost 5x larger than the whole screen. If the Earth-Sun distance was shown at the same scale is the Earth image it would be more 10,000x larger!).

The constellations of the zodiac are marked around the perimeter of the face. The position of each planets is correct with respect to them from the perspective of the Sun. The angular positions of the other planets with respect to the Earth can be estimated only very approximately with this display since it is so greatly out of scale. (For that purpose, use Emerald Venezia.)

More information is available at the website listed.