The Eise Eisinga Planetarium is named after its builder, an 18th-century wool comber with a serious sideline in cosmic mathematics and astrology. Between 1774 and 1781, he built the planetarium himself in the living room of his canal-side home to illustrate how the heavens actually worked. It's startling to contemplate how Eisinga could have devised a mechanical timing system built to a viewable working scale that could encompass and illustrate so many different variables of time and motion.
Alongside admiring what is now considered to be the world's oldest functioning planetarium, permanent exhibits include some of Eise Eisinga's mathematical and astronomical manuscripts, an impressive collection of astronomical instruments and documentary screenings about modern astronomy.
