The sky from your bed

Your very own solar system in 3D on the ceiling of your living room – who on earth has something like that? Well, Eise Eisenga, the wool comb maker from Franeker, he had it!! And he made it all by himself! He started work on it in 1774. Seven years later, it was finished. The pendulum clock that powered the whole thing hung above his box bed. I wonder if the clatter and ticking of all those cogs actually helped him sleep more peacefully…

Our solar system

By the end of the 18th century, people knew quite a lot about the planets in our solar system. But to know exactly how they were positioned in relation to one another, you had to draw up annual tables and apply complex calculations to them. A moving scale model offered the great advantage that you could see the positions of the planets at any given moment.

Eise Eisinga

Eise Eisinga (1744–1828), a wool carder, had a love of mathematics and astronomy instilled in him from an early age. His father, who was also a wool carder, spent his spare time building an organ and a galley. And when he noticed his son’s interest in astronomy, he built a telescope in his back garden. From the age of 15, Eise took maths lessons from the wool dyer Willem Wytzes, who had attended the University of Franeker.

International attraction

By 1778, the planetarium was up and running. From that point onwards, Eise Eisinga invited visitors to come and see it. One of the first to visit was Jean Henri van Swinden, a professor from Franeker. He was hugely impressed and would return on several occasions. In 1780, he wrote a booklet about the planetarium.

Eise Eisinga received many visitors, particularly members of the nobility and scholars. In 1782, King Gustav II of Sweden paid a visit. And on 30 June 1818, King William I and his brother Prince Frederick visited. They examined everything very closely and stayed for nearly three-quarters of an hour. Eise Eisinga wrote of the visit that the king even crawled into the cramped and confined space to observe how the clockwork mechanism operated.

In 1816, Eise Eisinga received a royal honour. He was appointed a Knight of the newly founded Order of the Netherlands Lion. This honour came with an annual allowance of 200 guilders. In the portrait of Eisinga painted by Willem Bartel van der Kooi, he is proudly wearing his Knight’s medal.

The Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium

Eise Eisinga died in 1828 at the age of 84. The last thing he heard on his deathbed was the clatter and ticking of gears. They are still clattering and ticking today. His planetarium is now a science museum called the Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium. It is the oldest functioning planetarium in the world. It has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2023. Today, the planetarium welcomes over 90,000 visitors a year.

© The portrait of Eise Eisinga is on display in Franeker Town Hall.