This is an attempt to create a complete page of items to print on silicone paper for etching onto the brass parts of the orrery. The items need to be reversed left to right and inverted, e.g. white text on a black background. I am using SVG to accomplish this as seen in Rotating and Mirroring Text.
The first text to put on the page is just the month abbreviations. CSS is used to produce the graphic. The white on black seen on the screen does not print out the same way!!!. Consequently, a screen shot was taken replacing the text. It is repeated so it can be tested in various ways.
The constellation symbols. This may be a challenge the way their HTML entities are rendered as symbols inside of boxes. Opened with GIMP, flipped, and then used the paint bucket followed by the paintbrush to replace purple with black.
Then the constellations need to be printed.
Finally, we need to try out some quotes for decorating the planetary rings. To size the quote rings the baseline should be 1/3 up from the inside diameter of the ring. The descendents of letters are about 1/3 of the total height, lower case about 1/3, and ascendents (and upper case) about 1/3. A margin of 1/16" top and bottom should be sufficient. So Baseline Radius = ((OD - ID)/2 - 1/8)/3 + ID/2 + 1/16 (Error Here!)
| Planet | ID | OD | Baseline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 1.500 | 2.063 | 0.865 |
| Venus | 2.815 | 3.563 | 1.554 |
| Earth | 4.000 | 5.000 | 2.188 |
| Mars | 6.313 | 7.375 | 3.355 |
The SVG path begins by Moving the pen to M50,200. An Arc is then drawn. The first two numbers (100, 100) are the radii in x and y directions. The last two numbers (51,201) are the endpoint of the arc. The zero is a flag for x-axis rotation and is seldom used. The first 1 is a flag for "large arc". When on, a large arc is drawn to connect the two points, while off a smaller connecting arc is drawn. The last flag sets the direction of the arc. 1 is clockwise. A test version was printed out with black letters on a white background. The printed circles are 7% larger than the screen sizes, so the SVG code was adjusted accordingly. The following SVG code gives the correct sizes for Mercury, Venus and Earth. To easily cut out the circles the SVG should include inside and outside circles for each planet or marked centerpoints. Need longer quotes for Venus (30%) and Earth (50%) as well as adding inside and outside circles. [Note: this was all done with the Safari browser.] The following SVG code was optimized in the testing page and pasted in place here. As seen above this does not print out what is seen on the screen so a screen shot was taken, the SVG code was commented out, and the screen shot was used in its place.
The following quotes are those selected from the larger list presented in Orrery Decoration. The quotes not used on the rings above are in italics.
Measure for measure, we are to an atom, what a star is to us. PC Davies
Heaven calls you, and revolves around you, displaying to you its eternal beauties. Dante A
The stars arise, and the night is holy. HW Longfellow
Time is being and being time, it is all one thing, the shining, the seeing, the dark abounding. UK Le Guin
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once. JA Wheeler
The heavenly motions... are nothing but a song... perceived not by the ear, but by the intellect. J Kepler
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me. B Pascal
Time: labels moments, measures intervals, and is the medium through which we move. S Carroll
Science seeks the truth about the universe; the spirit seeks the truth that is greater than the universe. A J Heschel