# Table orrery

- By: Hartog van Laun
- Date: c. 1800 - c. 1808
- Medium: ivory, gilding (material), wood (plant material), brass (alloy)
- Classification: orrery
- Credit line: Gift of the Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/NG-NM-11700--09721a35b783a3c0c081879d7657dba8)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/JQNkR/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The instrument-maker Hartog van Laun designed a table orrery – a mechanical device to show the relative positions and movements of the sun, earth, moon and planets. He used the instrument for his own lectures, but he achieved true success with it only when the Amsterdam professor Jan Hendrik van Swinden fully explained it at the Felix Meritis Society in 1802 and published articles about it.