So, what does the astrolabe inspire?

Tom Wujec demos the 13th century astrolabe

So, would little Lewis have an astrolabe?

This is an astrolabe. Pretty impressive, isn't it?

If you were an educated child, you would know how to not only use the astrolabe, you would also know how to make an astrolabe.

So, an astrolabe is relatively unknown in today's world.

Now, the real genius of the astrolabe is not just the projection.

Well, the way you would do it is by using a device that's called an astrolabe.

And so, this astrolabe is on loan from us from the Oxford School of Museum of History.

So, the different parts of the astrolabe, in this particular type, the rete corresponds to the positions of the stars.

And we know this because the first treatise on the astrolabe, the first technical manual in the English language, was written by Geoffrey Chaucer.

And what the astrolabe does is it allows us, it affords us, to connect to the night sky, to look up into the night sky and be much more to see the visible and the invisible together.

Rather than demo another new technology, Tom Wujec reaches back to one of our earliest but most ingenious devices the astrolabe. With thousands of uses, from telling time to mapping the night sky, this old tech reminds us that the ancient can be as brilliant as the brand new.