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An astrolabe taken apart and set out in order: the mother plate with its throne, a latitude plate, the rete, the rule, the alidade and the pin with its wedge.
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Golden Age

Plates and Rete

No. 2 of 20 · free · 300 dpi

What you seeAn astrolabe taken apart and set out in order: the mother plate with its throne, a latitude plate, the rete, the rule, the alidade and the pin with its wedge.

What it meansEach part had its own job. Plates were cut for different latitudes and swapped into the hollow mother plate, so one instrument could travel.

Where it worksWorks in a workspace or library, for people who enjoy seeing how things fit together.

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2:3 · 7200 × 10800 px4×6 · 8×12 · 12×18 · 16×24 · 20×30 · 24×36 in
3:4 · 5400 × 7200 px6×8 · 9×12 · 12×16 · 18×24 in
4:5 · 7200 × 9000 px4×5 · 8×10 · 16×20 · 24×30 in
11:14 · 3300 × 4200 px11×14 in
A-series · 7023 × 9933 pxA5 · A4 · A3 · A2 · A1

Everything is one ZIP: every shape and size, the phone wallpaper, the SVGs and a printing guide.

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More from Golden Age

All 20 prints
The rete on its own, drawn in ink on paper: the rim, the equator ring, the off-centre ecliptic band with its degree marks, a row of five roundels, and slender pointers whose tips mark the places of bright stars.ReteNo. 3
An astrolabe plate engraved with circles of altitude rising to the zenith, lines of azimuth and the horizon in red. Wide and tall formats show two plates for different latitudes.Latitude PlateNo. 4
The back of an astrolabe drawn in brass lines on lapis, with its degree scales, a sine grid, hour arcs, the shadow square and a sighting alidade.Shadow SquareNo. 5
A brass celestial globe on a turned stand, marked with the equator, the ecliptic and constellation lines set with pale stars, held in a meridian ring and a horizon ring.Celestial GlobeNo. 6
An armillary sphere of interlocking brass rings around a small earth: horizon, meridian, equator, ecliptic, tropics and a colure.ArmillaryNo. 7
A round chart of the northern sky centred on the pole, with lines joining the stars of the Great Bear, the Little Bear, Draco, Cassiopeia and their neighbours, and the ecliptic dashed in red.Northern SkyNo. 8
A sine quadrant hanging on its plumb line, its grid of sixty divisions crossed by red semicircles and a finely graduated arc.Sine QuadrantNo. 9
A vertical sundial set into a pointed niche in a stone mosque wall, with its hour lines, the equinox line in blue, the solstice curves in red and the gnomon's shadow across the plate.Wall DialNo. 10

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