Tangible Heritage: Production of Astrolabes on a Laser Engraver

The astrolabe, an analog computing device, used to be the iconic instrument of astronomers during the Middle Ages. It allowed a multitude of operations of practical astronomy which were otherwise cumbersome to perform in an epoch when mathematics had apparently almost been forgotten. Usually made fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computer graphics forum Vol. 27; no. 8; pp. 2169 - 2177
Main Author: Zotti, G.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2008
Subjects:
astrolabe
Astronomy
Computer graphics
cultural heritage
I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational geometry and object modelling - geometric algorithms
I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational geometry and object modelling – geometric algorithms, languages and systems
I.3.8 [Computer Graphics]: Applications
languages and systems
Laser etching
Middle Ages
Museums
post script
Procedural modelling
Studies
Three dimensional imaging
ISSN:0167-7055, 1467-8659
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The astrolabe, an analog computing device, used to be the iconic instrument of astronomers during the Middle Ages. It allowed a multitude of operations of practical astronomy which were otherwise cumbersome to perform in an epoch when mathematics had apparently almost been forgotten. Usually made from wood or sheet metal, a few hundred instruments, mostly from brass, survived until today and are valuable museum showpieces. This paper explains a procedural modelling approach for the construction of the classical kinds of astrolabes, which allows a wide variety of applications from plain explanatory illustrations to three‐dimensional (3D) models, and even the production of working physical astrolabes usable for public or classroom demonstrations.
Bibliography:ArticleID:CGF1193
ark:/67375/WNG-69QTHSW5-8
istex:D0685CE2A2F2A2F539A2FC91CE07D7505504EB1B
This paper was selected from the Cultural Heritage Stream of Eurographics 2007
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ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:0167-7055
1467-8659
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8659.2008.01193.x