The wooden coffee table contains an orrery within the table. The orrery is motorized from underneath the wooden base to show the motions of the inner planets (out to Mars) under a glass table top. The ornamentation includes white tablets on the sides of the orrery showing the signs of the zodiac. The zodiac signs typically are based on "tropical" coordinates, in which Aries begins at the spring equinox, the point where the Sun appears to cross the plane of Earth's equator moving toward the north.
Only Earth rotates around its own axis, at a precessed angle, and the Moon revolves around Earth. The other planets do not rotate around an axis, but do rotate around the central sun model at a scaled rate.
Object Story
The Astronomical Coffee Table, otherwise known as the Orbitarium, was created by Hardings: Scientific Antiques in Ojai, California. This Astronomical Coffee Table belonged to Marjorie and Roderick Webster. The Websters were essentially volunteer curators at the Adler from 1970 to 1991. They contributed time, money, and artifacts to the collection. This coffee table was the Websters' coffee table, located in the living room of their home in Winnetka, Illinois. Made and sold as The Orbitarium by the firm of Hardings in Ojai, California—near the Websters' winter residence in Santa Barbara.
