Tellurion mécanique

Beautiful model. Works perfectly. I saw a review that the earth's axis doesn't tilt correctly, but mine does showing more or less sun on the northern hemisphere each summer (they should probably create several versions of part 126 for people elsewhere).

This was the first model I ever assembled. I broke a pieces 104 during step 3 on page 31, which taught me not to put pressure on a part from too far a distance. I received replacements (thanks!). For the rest, the connections click very well in place if you exert enough pressure (but be careful how because you can break things, see above) and the connections are surprisingly sturdy given the material.

I encountered a few gotchas during construction. It is easy to forget part 120 during step 2 on page 33 (e8 is not a single fixed thing). If you do, the moon will not move around. I was able to fix that by lifting part 123 and putting 120 in. The images om pages 27-28 are not entirely correct but that doesn't present a problem. One could also put part 126 in wrong and page 26 doesn't tell you correctly how. Also easily fixed.

After installing so many gears, I was quite surprised that it worked

Great product. Well illustrated, single-sentence polyglot instruction manual.

Not recommended for older, arthritic hands. I broke several pieces in setting up the pieces. Earth globe assembly is particularly fragile. Contacted customer service (user-friendly website) and they shipped replacement parts without cost, including free shipping (international mail).

Once finished, after many hours of focused attention in several sessions and some frustration, it's quite a rewarding experience to gaze on and teach others a model (it's just a model) for the mechanics of the phases of the moon and the seasons of the year based on ratios of wheel gears correctly engaged. A misplaced single piece can derail the whole motion, an important lesson in group work. Every manager and team leader should have one on their desk to show that a team is as strong as its weakest link.

I was pretty careful to make sure the gears moved smoothly before moving on the next part. Seem to work except for the moon doesnt move with the crank. Is it supposed to be connect? Or just to its own side gear to turn it? Instructions are not clear on that part.

My favorite model from UGears. Brilliant, complex design with surprising details: even the plane of orbit of the Moon is inclined with respect to the plane of orbit of the Earth. Amazing educational model, all in plywood.

This is only my second assembly, I took it slowly, being very careful to sand and wax as I went along and it works beautifully. I’ve already ordered 2 more clocks…

The design of this model is brilliant on so many levels. The Earth rotates on its axis keeping its orientation in space as it orbits the Sun; the moon orbits the earth, and the plane of its orbit is tilted with respect to the Sun and Earth! Without the tilt, eclipses would happen twice per month. The adjustment for the phases of the Moon with the seasons is masterful. In the assembly of the structure, there is the clever way the slots are ‘sprung’ so that the tabs are retained snugly. Then there are the artistic touches—the animated flapping bird on the Earth, and other ornamental features. I had to have three goes at assembling the mechanism using the eccentric/off-centred gear before it would run smoothly, but apart from that, the build was straightforward, although I used a great deal more sandpaper than was supplied... A superb and highly educational working model of the Sun, Moon, and Earth. My first from Ugears, but by no means my last. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Beautiful model, but ultimately useless as it kept falling apart. It seems that the pieces didn't fit tight enough and the earth was too heavy for the base so the earth didn't revolve around the sun properly and some of the toothed wheels kept falling down. Very unfortunate, we put a lot of time and effort into waxing and assembling everything (we did it twice) and would have loved to see the model in action.

The tellurion is a really nice machine but unfortunaely it does not run the way it should. Mechanically everything runs smoothly but the axis of the earth does not point to the same direction in one year's way around. Instead it rotates itself anticlockwise once per year, like a precession of a spinning top. Mechanically this kind of rotation should go clockwise to compensate the anticlockwise run around the sun, which would lead to a stable axis of the earth. Because everything else seems to run correctly I guess there is a design error in this beautiful machine. Unfortunately it just makes no sense to use it this way, which is astronomical nonsense. If you have any clue where I might have a mistake in putting things together I would like to hear any suggestions. But again: because the whole thing runs nicely the way it should I cannot think of anything I could have done differently. In my opinion I assembled anything by the given book.

This is model #5 for me! Incredible thought and execution went into this model, from your design, fabrication, and instruction book teams. Well done! EVERY part fits exactly how it is shown in the instructions. It operates quite smoothly. The tellurion is pretty accurate in showing position of earth/moon/phase each day of the year.