[awr-uh-ree, or-] 
| 1. | an apparatus for representing the positions, motions, and phases of the planets, satellites, etc., in the solar system. |
| 2. | any of certain similar machines, as a planetarium. |
| or·re·ry (ôr'ə-rē, ŏr'-) n. pl. or·re·ries A mechanical model of the solar system. [After Charles Boyle, Fourth Earl of Orrery (1676-1731), for whom one was made.] |
orrery
mechanical model of the solar system used to demonstrate the motions of the planets about the Sun, probably invented by George Graham (d. 1751) under the patronage of Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery. In use for several centuries, the device was formerly called a planetarium. The orrery presents the planets as viewed from outside the solar system in an accurate scale model of periods of revolution (with the Earth completing a year's rotation in about 10 minutes). The planets' sizes and distances, however, are necessarily inaccurate. See also planetarium.
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