DALLASI absolutely love this, it's called an orrery, and it's a little mechanical model of our solar system. You can see the planets here, orbiting the sun as they would do in real life.

This beautiful model of the solar system is an example of a type of instrument known as an 'orrery'. It is made of wood, brass and ivory with a paper scale which was printed and pasted on the top ...

At five metres in diameter, the Jodrell Bank orrery – a moving, model of the Solar System – is believed to be the largest of its kind in the world and includes a complex system of 52 brass gears that ...