“The portable universe”: A build-it-yourself astrolabe workshop

“Like a modern electronic computer, the astrolabe in the Middle Ages was a source of astonishment and amusement, of annoyance and incomprehension.” (North 1974, p. 106).

Today, astrolabes ornament scientific and popular books on the history of science and illustrate in exhibitions pre-modern scholarship, especially in Islamicate societies. In motion pictures they indicate either the medieval scholar or the sorcerer, while in pre-modern figures, a person with an astrolabe denotes the astronomer or the astrologer. As decorative as these multi-functional instruments are, how are they used? And what can be done with them? After a brief introduction to the history and mathematics of this fascinating instrument, this workshop provides the opportunity to build a simple paper model of an astrolabe and subsequently learn to solve some simple tasks with it.

Interested? Register by sending an e-mail to bruno.schalekamp@ru.nl.