Leiden Sphaeria
The Leiden Sphaera (1.5m across), a top attraction in Museum Boerhaave (the Dutch National Museum for the History of Science and Medicine in Leiden), was built around 1670 by the clock maker Steven Tracy for Adriaen Vroesen, a mayor of Rotterdam with a keen interest in science. It is a very early example of an orrery: a dynamic scale model of the solar system.
Unfortunately the stars were replaced in the wrong order; a 1711 engraving of the Sphaera, in a pamphlet published by Leiden Observatory, clearly shows that the original order of the constellations was correct. The same is true for a photo of the instrument made in 1930. But a 1948 photo reveals that the current mistake was made at least 63 years ago.
Unfortunately the stars were replaced in the wrong order; a 1711 engraving of the Sphaera, in a pamphlet published by Leiden Observatory, clearly shows that the original order of the constellations was correct. The same is true for a photo of the instrument made in 1930. But a 1948 photo reveals that the current mistake was made at least 63 years ago.