Franeker - Planetarium

Opposite the Town Hall, at Eise Eisingstraat 3, is an unpretentious house containing a feature which in its day was famed far beyond the bounds of Friesland. This was a planetarium constructed in 1774-81 by Eise Eisinga, a wool comber and amateur astronomer, on his living room ceiling. Some of his fellow citizens had been led by a local newspaper to believe that, as a result of the unusual position of certain planets, the end of the world was near.