In the world of strange desk accessories, the Planetary Orbit Clock is king. It looks like a twirling model of the heavens, with four planets spinning around a stationary star or other object in the center. All of the objects are constantly moving in time, and you'd think it was just an attractive desktop model--until you stand directly over it and realize that there's function to its form.

From the top down, you'd see that the smallest silver ball, moving rapidly around the ball in the center, makes one complete orbit around the center ball in 60 seconds. The larger silver ball is for minutes, and the gold ball represents hours. You read the positions of the planets in their orbit as the time of day by lining up the planets with the notches in the base. With practice, you'll be able to tell the time without having to stand directly over the clock, and thus impress fellow astrophiles. The Planetary Orbit Clock is $49.99, and only available in limited quantities, so get yours now.