Night work

What does an ochs und junior tinta do at night? It carries on making itself useful! Its three hands glow in the dark, as do the sun at 12 o’clock and the indices (with their variable lengths adapted to the date spiral). The moon in the tinta selene also glows (in the above picture, it’s waning). There’ll be a new moon on 29 August, at which point you won’t see it in the selene for a couple of days.

The selene’s moon disk is given an impulse twice a day by the epicyclic (or planetary) gearing designed by Ludwig Oechslin. As you would expect, the disk makes a complete rotation once per lunation.

In this picture, the moon is full (that’s what you see at night). The selene’s moon glows just as you see it in the night sky. The next full moon is on 12 September…