This Astronomical Watch Shows Our Solar System Orbiting the Sun

 

Midnight Planétarium is an incredible timepiece that features six bejewelled planets in our solar system accurately rotating around our Sun. The watch was created by Van Cleef & Arpels in partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw.

After three years of work, Midnight Planétarium was unveiled at the annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), held every January in Geneva. The watch contains 396 separate parts and features the six closest planets accurately orbiting the sun.

Why were Uranus and Neptune not included? Because you would hardly seem them ever move as Uranus takes over 84 years to make a single rotation of the sun while Neptune takes an astonishing 164 years!

As for the planets that are featured, they will make a full rotation on the watch as follows:

Mercury: every 88 days
Venus: every 224 days
Earth: every 365 days
Mars: every 687 days
Jupiter: every 12 years
Saturn: every 29 years

Each of the planets are represented by precious and semi-precious stones, ranging from red jasper to serpentine and turquoise. There is also a ‘lucky day’ feature that uses the bezel to allow owners to select any day of the year as your ‘lucky day’ and the Earth will fall underneath the painted star (seen in pics # 1,7,8) on the watch’s crystal on that day every year.

Before you rush out to buy one for your stargazing friend, make sure you can afford the staggering $245,000 price tag!

[via Tendance Horlogerie, Cool Hunting, The Verge]

 

1.

Watch Design by Van Cleef & Arpels
in Partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw

 

2.

Watch Design by Van Cleef & Arpels
in Partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw

 

3.

Watch Design by Van Cleef & Arpels
in Partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw

 

4.

Watch Design by Van Cleef & Arpels
in Partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw

 

5.

Watch Design by Van Cleef & Arpels
in Partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw

 

6.

Watch Design by Van Cleef & Arpels
in Partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw

 

7.

Watch Design by Van Cleef & Arpels
in Partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw

 

8.

Watch Design by Van Cleef & Arpels
in Partnership with Christiaan van der Klaauw

 

 

 

If you enjoyed this post, the Sifter
highly recommends:

 

15 Sculptures Made from Old Watch Parts

 

 

This 240-year-old Machine is an Ancestor to the Modern Computer

 

 

These Functioning Watches Were Carved From Wood

 

 

The Vastness of Space, Miniaturized

 

Trying to comprehend the expanse of space is a daunting task. Just reading about the distance between Earth and the nearest star/planet/galaxy is enough to boggle most minds. So the thought of miniaturizing something so expansive as the Cosmos is both fascinating and counter-intuitive.

Last month reddit user TheScienceLlama used the Tilt-Shift filter in Photoshop to create a stunning series of space images. While many associate the technique with tilt-shift photography, it’s more accurate to describe this particular Photoshop process as miniature faking or the diorama effect.

 

An example of ‘digital miniaturization’ by Greg Keene

 

The effect is achieved by blurring parts of the photo to simulate a shallow depth of field. You can read more about the technique here and here.

If you enjoy the series below, be sure to check out the desktop wallpapers that reddit user Wattsit made using the same effect.

[via TheScienceLlama]

 

1. Horsehead Nebula

Miniaturized by TheScienceLlama

Original Image by NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Assembly and processing by Robert Gendler

 

2. Crab Nebula

Miniaturized by TheScienceLlama

Original Image by Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, U. Arizona

 

3. Centaurs A

Miniaturized by TheScienceLlama

Original Image by ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray)

 

4. Meathook Galaxy

Miniaturized by TheScienceLlama

Original Image by ESO

 

5. Thor’s Helmet Nebula

Miniaturized by TheScienceLlama

Original Image by Robert Gendler

 

6. Pencil Nebula

Miniaturized by TheScienceLlama

Original Image by ESO

 

7. Tadpole Galaxy

Miniaturized by TheScienceLlama

Original Image by HST data from the Hubble Legacy Archive
Processed by Bill Snyder

 

8. Andromeda Galaxy

Miniaturized by TheScienceLlama

Original Image by Adam Evans

 

 

Reddit user Wattsit made a series of desktop wallpapers using the same technique.
You can download the full size images on Imgur!

 

Miniaturized by Wattsit

 

Miniaturized by Wattsit

 

Miniaturized by Wattsit

 

Miniaturized by Wattsit

 

Miniaturized by Wattsit

 

Miniaturized by Wattsit

 

Miniaturized by Wattsit

 

Miniaturized by Wattsit

 

 

 

If you enjoyed this post, the Sifter
highly recommends:

 

What if Other Planets Were as Close to Earth as the Moon?

 

 

What the Night Sky Would Look Like if Cities Went Dark

 

 

15 Mind-Blowing Featured Images by NASA

 

 

Saturn, Venus, Mars and Earth All in One Photo

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

 

For a sense of scale, the image above sweeps nearly 405,000 miles (651,784 km) across Saturn and its inner rings. It’s the first image ever taken that shows Saturn, its moons and rings, Venus, Mars and Earth all at once. Unveiled on Tuesday, the natural-color, panoramic mosaic taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows the view as it would be seen by human eyes.

 

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

 

With both Cassini’s wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras aimed at Saturn, Cassini was able to capture 323 images in just over four hours. This final mosaic uses 141 of those wide-angle images. Images taken using the red, green and blue spectral filters of the wide-angle camera were combined and mosaicked together to create this natural-color view. [Source]

 

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

 

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

 

In the lower right of the mosaic, in between the bright blue E ring and the faint but defined G ring, is the pale blue dot of our planet, Earth. Look closely and you can see the moon protruding from the Earth’s lower right (click here for 9000×3500 px resolution). Earth’s twin, Venus, appears as a bright white dot in the upper left quadrant of the mosaic, also between the G and E rings. Mars also appears as a faint red dot embedded in the outer edge of the E ring, above and to the left of Venus. For ease of visibility, Earth, Venus, Mars, Enceladus, Epimetheus and Pandora were all brightened by a factor of eight and a half relative to Saturn. [Source]

 

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

 

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

 

A third annotated version of the image (click here for the 9000×3500 px version) labels Saturn’s numerous rings and moons such as: Enceladus, Prometheus, Tethys, Mimas, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Janus’ ring and Pallene’s ring. [Source]

 

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

 

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

 

Cassini was approximately 746,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn when the images in this mosaic were taken. Launched in 1997, Cassini has explored the Saturn system for more than nine years. NASA plans to continue the mission through 2017, with the anticipation of many more images of Saturn, its rings and moons, as well as other scientific data. [Source]

 

 

 

If you enjoyed this post, the Sifter
highly recommends:

 

What if Other Planets Were as Close to Earth as the Moon?

 

 

15 Mind-Blowing Featured Images by NASA

 

 

10 Iconic Images of the Earth from Space

 

 

Picture of the Day: The Eclipse of Venus

 

THE ECLIPSE OF VENUS

 

Image Credit: NASA/SDO & the AIA, EVE, and HMI teams
Digital Composition by: PETER L. DOVE

 

Selected as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day on August 20, 2013, is this fascinating digital composition by Peter L. Dove. APOD explains:

Usually it is the Earth’s Moon that eclipses the Sun. Last June, most unusually, the planet Venus took a turn. Like a solar eclipse by the Moon, the phase of Venus became a continually thinner crescent as Venus became increasingly better aligned with the Sun.
 
Eventually the alignment became perfect and the phase of Venus dropped to zero. The dark spot of Venus crossed our parent star. The situation could technically be labeled a Venusian annular eclipse with an extraordinarily large ring of fire. Pictured above during the occultation, the Sun was imaged in three colors of ultraviolet light by the Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, with the dark region toward the right corresponding to a coronal hole. Hours later, as Venus continued in its orbit, a slight crescent phase appeared again. The next Venusian solar eclipse will occur in 2117.

 

Peter L. Dove on Flickr via NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

 

 

 

Spherical Layer Cake Planets by Cakecrumbs

Design by CAKECRUMBS
Website | deviantART | Facebook

 

Rhiannon is the 25-year-old Australian Zoology graduate and self-taught baker behind the food blog cakecrumbs.me. Her incredible Jupiter planet cake (seen above) was featured earlier this week on the highly influential I f*cking love science Facebook page (which boasts a staggering 6.3 million fans).

The layer cake has since gone viral, with Rhiannon’s Earth cake (a commission) also making the rounds. She has now posted a detailed tutorial on her blog on how to make the deliciously cakes, which you can find at the links below:

– Jupiter Structural Layer Cake blog post
– Earth Structural Layer Cake blog post
– Spherical Concentric Layer Cake Tutorial

 

Design by CAKECRUMBS
Website | deviantART | Facebook

 

Design by CAKECRUMBS
Website | deviantART | Facebook

 

Design by CAKECRUMBS
Website | deviantART | Facebook

 

Design by CAKECRUMBS
Website | deviantART | Facebook

 

Design by CAKECRUMBS
Website | deviantART | Facebook

 

Design by CAKECRUMBS
Website | deviantART | Facebook

 

 

 

 

If you enjoyed this post, the Sifter
highly recommends:

 

18 National Flags Made From Food

 

 

 

The Amazing Latte Art of Kazuki Yamamoto

 

 

 

Creative Food Art Portraits by Hong Yi

 

 

 

Picture of the Day: Earth from the Dark Side of Saturn

 

EARTH FROM THE DARK SIDE OF SATURN

 

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

 

In this rare image taken on July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn’s rings and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame.

The dark side of Saturn, its bright limb, the main rings, the F ring, and the G and E rings are clearly seen; the limb of Saturn and the F ring are overexposed. The “breaks” in the brightness of Saturn’s limb are due to the shadows of the rings on the globe of Saturn, preventing sunlight from shining through the atmosphere in those regions. The E and G rings have been brightened for better visibility.

Earth, which is 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away in this image, appears as a blue dot at center right; the moon can be seen as a fainter protrusion off its right side. An arrow indicates their location. The other bright dots nearby are stars.

This is only the third time ever that Earth has been imaged from the outer solar system. The acquisition of this image marked the first time that inhabitants of Earth knew in advance that their planet was being imaged. That opportunity allowed people around the world to join together in social events to celebrate the occasion.

The image was taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 19, 2013 at a distance of approximately 753,000 miles (1.212 million kilometers) from Saturn.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit www.nasa.gov/cassini and saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

 

via NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Flickr

 

 

 

Picture of the Day: Planet Mercury

 

PLANET MERCURY

 

Photograph by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

 

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER’s primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up Mercury’s surface.

Young crater rays, extending radially from fresh impact craters, appear light blue or white. Medium- and dark-blue areas are a geologic unit of Mercury’s crust known as the “low-reflectance material”, thought to be rich in a dark, opaque mineral. Tan areas are plains formed by eruption of highly fluid lavas. The giant Caloris basin is the large circular tan feature located just to the upper right of center of the image.

The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft’s seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System’s innermost planet. During the one-year primary mission, MESSENGER acquired 88,746 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is now in a yearlong extended mission.

Mercury is the smallest and closest to the Sun of the eight planets in the Solar System, with an orbital period of about 88 Earth days. Because it has almost no atmosphere to retain heat, Mercury’s surface experiences the greatest temperature variation of all the planets, ranging from 100 K (−173 °C; −280 °F) at night to 700 K (427 °C; 800 °F) during the day at some equatorial regions. [Source]

 

via MESSENGER’s Official Website