My Newest Space "Toy"

[58limited]

I just bought this rare item on ebay and it arrived today. This is the Musser Copernican Planetarium. It was designed by Dr. Claire O. Musser and built by Hughes Aircraft exclusively for sale at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, it could not be purchased elsewhere. It is 25 1/4" tall, 19" wide, 9" deep. I do not know how many were made, mine is serial number 515.

As you all know, space travel and the future were very popular themes during this period and this was the theme of the Seattle World's Fair. The design and shape of this planetarium reflects that. It has futuristic styling, flourescent paints on the planets, new (for that era) plastics, and chrome hardware. This orrery is motorized so that the planets revolve realistically over time around the sun. It has built in ultra-violet lighting so that the flourescent painted planets glow as they move over the star field. It came with overlay disks that show the paths of comets, asteroids, and other objects; as well as constellation disks showing the monthly changes in the night sky. Mine came with 17 disks, four are duplicates. I do not know how many different overlay disks were made.

The paint on the planets is peeling and there are cracks in the plexiglass, so I'm going to have to do some restoration to this.

 

[58limited]

With the black light on. I forgot to turn on the sun, so it is hard to see the center of the solar system in this picture.

 

[58limited]

The inner workings. Nylon gears and metal chains - same chains used by banks and post offices to secure their pens.

 

[58limited]

Close up of the gears - came out blurry.

 

[58limited]

Cool 9 minute Bell Telephone promo of the '62 Seattle World's Fair. Shows several futuristic telephone innovations such as touch tone, automatic dialing (with computer punch paper), and the first pager.

 

[maytagbear]

That is very cool, David!

Enjoy!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[frontaloadotmy]

That is quite nice David

It must be a very rare find.

 

[58limited]

~It must be a very rare find.

It is. I have only seen two others for sale in the last several years: one was nice but had few of the overlay disks, the other was missing the back cover, had no overlay disks, and needed a lot of work (it sold for more than the one I just bought!).

Mine does not have an operator's manual, and I have contacted the very few owners that I could locate here in the U.S. - no one has a manual. I lucked out and found a museum in Britain that has one of these. They only have a photocopy of the manual but are going to send me a copy of it.