Orrery Info Requested Please!

I always marvelled at the antique mechanical Orreries with wishful thoughts of owning one but their price range (ie £1000 plus) was never within my budget.  Looking at your post made me do a little research again but I am afraid I dont see any decent Orrery for under £500.  There is an electronic one for £600 but it doesnt have the classic beauty of a traditional mechanical orrery.

I have found a very nice guide to buying an orrery/tellarium here though which I thought was a very informative read.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Mechanical-Orreries-Planetariums-and-Telleriums-/10000000007734323/g.html

Also, rather than a poor quality Orrery, you might want to consider a nice waulity Tellarium instead which you might find within your budget

The only advice I can really offer is to not go for a cheap plastic one. They simply don't work. Also, many cheaper models only feature the Sun, Earth and Moon, which is a bit rubbish really.

The trouble is, as Tej has mentioned, the decent antique brass models are incredibly expensive. The more modern mass-produced ones all seem to be made in China... I couldn't vouch for their quality or accuracy.

The ones that look really look the part all have to be commissioned from specialist orrery makers. No prices are even listed on their websites - I suspect if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it!

Apparently, there was a magazine released a few years ago, which gave you the parts to build your own orrery. It cost about £300 to get a fully working model in the end, which people did manage to do. It looks like some of these models are available on eBay, but I don't know about quality again. Do a Google search for "Eaglemoss orrery".

Thanks chaps for your input, I passed it on to him and he said very useful.

It seems he has gone for a 'Franklin Mint' Orrery and is having a look at it this weekend...

Cheers

James