1. The Earth travels around the Sun in approximately 365 ¼ days. How long does the Moon take to revolve around the earth?

2. The same side of the Moon is always facing the Earth. Does the Moon spin on it axis? How fast, if at all?

3. The base of the orrery has four sides. Could those sides represent the four seasons?

4. Are the relative sizes of the moon, the planets and the sun accurate?

5. Are the distances accurate?

6. A day is 24 hours long. Does this fact mean that the earth rotates exactly 360 degrees in 24 hours?

7. Textbooks usually describe the periods of rotation and revolution for the planets and the moon, but rarely do they identify the direction of movement. Can you make observations or plan experiments to determine which way the moon orbits the Earth? .... which way the Earth obits the Sun?

8. Is there "day" and "night" (a period of light followed by a period of dark) on the moon? How long is a "Moon day?"

9. The tides are predominately caused by the motion of the Moon. The Earth rotates approximately once every 24 hours. Yet, if a high tide is at 9am one day, on the next day there will be a high tide at about 10am. How could this be?

10. The arms that support Earth, Mercury and Venus are fixed length. Is this accurate?

11. What causes the earth to have different seasons? Is this characteristic accurately modeled with this Orrery?

12. From antiquity the circle has always had 360 degrees. What did one degree represent?

13. In summer daylight lasts longer. In winter nighttime is longer. Is this true in the Southern Hemisphere as well? Is there any place on Earth where the amount of daylight does’t change throughout the year?

14. In the United States the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. In Australia are those directions reversed?

15. Venus, and especially Mercury, either set in the West soon after dusk or rise in the East just before dawn. They never appear in the night sky directly over head. Why is that?

16. When there is a "new moon," will the lit section of the moon be on the East or West section of the moon.

17. What are the positions of the Earth and the Moon when there is an eclipse of the Sun?

18. What are the positions of the Earth and the Moon when there is an eclipse of the Moon?

19. Where are the Earth and the Moon when there is a Full Moon? If you are on the Moon where are their positions when there is a "Full Earth?"

20. Why are shadows longer in the winter than in the summer?

21. The earth in this model is ¾ inch in diameter. If the Sun were modeled to this same scale, how big would it be?