The animator of the astronomical clock on this page was created by M. Rada using the FLASH technology. It was first made available at www.volny.cz/mrada/orloj/orloj4 where you can also find contact information about the author. The animation shows what can be read from the dial of the Prague Astronomical Clock. However, it does not aspire to copy all movements of the astronomical clock parts exactly. It is just a visual aid.
The program is only available in Czech language. So that you are able to use it, here is a legend for the buttons:
The right top part shows the numeric situation displayed on the dial in the following order: year, month, day, hour, minute. The first green button “Exact time” sets the time in accordance with your PC. With the yellow buttons on the right you can: „Přidat minutu“ = “Add one minute”, „Ubrat minutu“ = “Deduce one minute”, „Přidat hodinu“ = “Add one hour”, „Ubrat hodinu“ = “Deduce one hour”, „Ubrat den“ = “Deduce one day”, „Přidat den“ = “Add one day”, „Přidat rok“ = “Add one year”, „Ubrat rok“ = “Deduce one year”.
The brown buttons underneath start animation by days, by minutes and can also stop the animation. The bright green buttons start a special regime in which the program searches for the soonest „Měsíc v novu“ = “New moon” and „Měsíc v úplňku“ = “Full moon”.
The blue and brown buttons in the left column highlight indicators for CET, the Old Czech Time, the Sidereal Time, the Babylonian Time and also explain the terms autumnal and spring equinox, winter and summer solstice, the signs of the zodiac, tropics, sunrises/sunsets and moonrises/moonsets, the seasons of the year and Czech meaning of the signs on the dial. The last button undoes the selected highlighting.