Since young my father introduced me to astronomy and grew wondering how we could understand big concepts like space and time. I was always in awe, stargazing disbelieving that we're in this beautiful universe and made out of the same matter as explosive stars and black holes. In my final project I want to honour this feeling of awe.

I have seen multiple people making cool stuff in the field of astronomy using the maker tools. For Example the AstroTracker project. It's an Open-source DIY star tracker which can be build from simple, and 3D printed parts.But the take is that it uses GPS module to perfect the tracking and advanced calculation and It may be so complex for me to re-make something this cool. But! I still have multiple cool ideas up my sleeve so let me list them

1st: Orrery-inspired clock

So the idea is a simple smart replica of the orrery. for those of you who haven't heard before. It's an ancient device used to simulate preciesly the motion and location of astronomical objects in the sky.

Features

The Interface encoder knob, LCD, which will control the date
The encoder to the date from menu
Once a date selected the motors carrying the earth & sun will move using a some kind of lazy suzan mechanism.
The Earth or the Sun will rotate around each other mimicing thier movement on the same day

Sketch

2nd: Auto-Guided Telescope 🔭

Well, I just can give up on the poetic idea of chasing the stars! what can I say. Like the name suggests I want to make something that can be controlled via a software called stellarium. It's a Stellarium is a free open source planetarium app that provides a realistic 3D view of the night sky. I can point at a star or a constellations, planets, nebulae and other celestial objects with mild ease. Or I can mount a camera and make the motors move with a precise and slow angles to capture a beautiful star trails Inspired by the multiple projects like

3D Design

I simulated the gear movement in Computer aided design week

BOM

I will use the same components as the orrery clock but with a different design. I will use a stepper motor.

Bonus Feature for star pointer Project: Adding a camera to take pictures of the stars and planets.

My Components

component	Quantity
Capacitors	3
Resistor	2
ESP32-Wroom	1
Switches	2
Stepper Motor	1
LCD	1
PinHeaders	2
Voltage Regulator 3.3v	1

Programming

In Embedded Programming week I tried to get Mars's data from NASA horizon API: Here

Though to my dismay, I didn't have the time to make the data control the Servo motor or even show it on LCD screen.

Networking

Resources

I found this site that will help with the orrery ratios Here

Fellow Fab Academy Graduates: Orrery Lamp

Updated Detailed Description 26 April 2025.

I decided to go with the Orrery-inspired planet simulator as my final project. The project will feature two objects thesun and the moon, While the earth is stationary on

What does it do?

Once opened the orrery will reset the motion to a pre-set movement just like homing.
The ESP32 will go fetch the Data of the Right Ascension in hours from Horizon API or AstronomyAPI.
The ESP32 will control the stepper motor to move the orrery to match the real motion of sun viewed from the north pole.
Nice to Have: The ESP32 will control the stepper motor to move the orrery to match the real motion of the moon viewed from the north pole.

Who's done what beforehand?

Most of the people I found in Fab Academy used the concept of the orrery to make lamps like here

What parts and systems have you tried and what will be made?

I tried designing the gear movement in Computer aided design week