Anticythera mechanism.A 65B.C Greek computer mechanism watching the stars?

Question

More valuable than Mona lisa found in the Greek island of
Antikythera as written in The Observer.What was it exactly doing?

Answer 1

"An ancient astronomical calculator, built around the end of the second century BC, was unexpectedly sophisticated, a study in this week's Nature suggests. Mike G. Edmunds and colleagues used imaging and high-resolution X-ray tomography to study fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism, a bronze mechanical analog computer thought to calculate astronomical positions. The Greek device contains a complicated arrangement of at least 30 precision, hand-cut bronze gears housed inside a wooden case covered in inscriptions. But the device is fragmented, so its specific functions have remained controversial. The team were able to reconstruct the gear function and double the number of deciphered inscriptions on the computer's casing. The device, they say, is technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards. The text is astronomical with many numbers that could be related to planetary motions, and the gears are a mechanical representation of a second century theory that explained the irregularities of the Moon's motion across the sky caused by its elliptical orbit. CONTACT Mike G. Edmunds (Cardiff University, UK)."


Check in these sites and you gonna get all your answers.
Finally last month there was a press conferance about it.

http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/...

http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/ptm/antik...

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/11...

http://archaeoastronomy.wordpress.com/20...

Answer 2

Hi. Great question. Sent me on a quest! This text "At least 20 gear wheels of the mechanism have been preserved, including a very sophisticated assembly of gears that were mounted eccentrically on a turntable and probably functioned as a sort of epicyclic or differential, gear-system." gives a clue. That was a basic astronomy theory : http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=epicyclic&gwp=16 . My guess is therefore that it was used as an astronomy tool.

Answer 3

It was used as an astronomical tool and as a planetarium.
The user of this tool was able to now the position of all planets.