Euclidea – Geometric Construction puzzles

In researching the astrolabe and related tools, geometric construction comes up regularly. I find the process of using a straight edge and compass to create accurate designs to be fascinating in and of itself. One of my ongoing projects is drafting an astrolabe using just those tools. The other day I ran across a fascinating […]

Major Update!

Yeah, I’m still plugging away, between burnout and other commitments I haven’t had a lot of time for this project. This has changed with the turning of the year. First up, I have made a major update to the Astrolabe Generator. I finally figured out a way to digitize a set of zodiac symbols and […]

Current Progress

Even though I haven’t been posting, I have been busy. In addition to the changes to the Astrolabe Generator mentioned in the previous post, I was asked to teach a class at a small gathering of medieval reenactors last month, and so had to to get my class handout updated ahead of schedule, and a […]

Drafting the Astrolabe 12: The climates part 1

The first step in drafting the astrolabe climate plate is to lay out the Tropics and the Equator, along with the meridian. As these markings will be the same for all the plates, it makes sense to draw each line on all the plates before moving on to the next line. This way, I can […]

Drafting the Astrolabe 12: Planning the climates

Before I tackle the next bit I need to plan out what I want to do. I want a set of five climate plates, one for each of five different latitudes. One of these will need to be for the latitude of Cooper’s Lake, the site of the annual Pennsic War. Another should be the […]

Drafting the Astrolabe 11: The Unequal Hour Arcs – Completed

The unequal hours arcs have now been added to the back of the astrolabe. With the exception of what little decoration I’m planning, this completes work on the back of the project. With the front and the back now finished, the next step is designing a set of climate plates. Doing five of those will […]

Drafting the Astrolabe 11: The Unequal Hour Arcs

The next step, and the last scale to be added to the back of my astrolabe, is the unequal hour scale. In the middle ages, there where several timekeeping systems in use, as opposed to the single one we use now. This next scale was designed to convert between two of these systems: The Equal […]

Drafting the Astrolabe 10: The Shadow Squares – Completed

I thought I posted this two weeks ago… Work and life have gotten busier than I realized it seems. Anyway, here is the completed shadow square section. Next up will be the unequal hours scale and then the back will be done.

Drafting the Astrolabe 10: The Shadow Squares

Getting the zodiac and calendar rings done was probably the worse, most finicky part of this project; the rest of the tasks remaining might require careful measurement, and attention to detail, but orders of magnitude less work than the last section. The next task is to finish off the rear of the astrolabe. Two scales […]

Drafting the Astrolabe 9: The Calendar Ring Completed

The inking of the calendar ring is done. The result is not as neat as I might wish, But it is workable. The next step will be much easier: Drawing the shadow squares.