Periastra Zenith

An observatory dome with a game of draughts under it.

The dome stands on 4 corner posts over a board of 64 squares. Lift it off and the game is already set — 24 counters, 12 a side, the Sun against the Moon, on 32 dark squares inlaid in a second colour. Put it back and it is an observatory again, shutter open the whole height of the shell with the telescope standing inside on its own footing.

The printed set closed: a teal domed observatory on a pale grey tray, with orange and yellow counters showing through the gap beneath the dome's square floor plate.
Closed, and giving itself away. The orange and yellow along the near edge are counters, standing on the board under the floor plate the dome is built on.
58printed parts
7.5 × 7.5 × 4.3 inclosed
18.3 ozweight
24counters

Closed, it is a building.

A domed observatory 7.5 × 7.5 × 4.3 in, printed in 5 colours. The shutter is open the whole height of the shell — from the floor, over the apex, down the far flank — and the telescope inside stands on its own footing with only its mouth clear of the slit.

There is a game in here.

The dome never touches the tray. It stands on the 4 corner posts, and the 4 mm slot that leaves runs right round the set. What shows through it is counters.

Lift the dome off.

Nothing unclips and nothing is hinged. The square floor plate the observatory is built on is the lid of the box, and it comes straight up off its four seats with 0.8 mm of slack all round.

64 squares, 24 counters.

English draughts, set to start: 12 a side on the dark squares of the three ranks nearest each player. Those dark squares are separate tiles 2 mm thick, dropped into pockets sunk in the board so they finish flush with the light ones.

No wrong way up.

Both faces of every counter carry the same mark, standing 1.5 mm proud of a sunk circular field and finishing level with the rim. Turn one over and nothing about it changes.

Put it back over the game.

There is 10 mm of air under the dome and a counter stands 7 mm, so the lid goes back on a game in progress and the position keeps. A crowned king is two counters, 14 mm — which is one way to know the game is not over.

Three counters: an orange Sun counter with a rayed disc, a pale gold Moon counter with a crescent, and two Moon counters stacked into a king.
A Sun man, a Moon man, and a Moon king — which is two counters of the same colour, stacked.

Sun and Moon, on both faces

Each counter is a disc with a circular field sunk into it on both sides, and its mark standing back up out of that field: a rayed disc for the Sun, a crescent for the Moon.

The mark stops level with the rim rather than proud of it. That is what keeps a stack flat — you crown a king here the way you crown one in any draughts set, by putting a second counter of the same colour on top of the first, and it sits square instead of rocking on its own engraving.

It also means there is no upside down. However a counter lands on the board, the mark is facing you.

The closed set from above: the dome on its square plate, the tray's four corner posts, and counters showing in the slot along all four sides.
Every side shows the same slot, and every slot shows counters.

Shut, it is furniture

A draughts box usually announces itself. This one reads as a model of an observatory until somebody looks along the bottom edge.

  • 4 posts, 4 seatsThe tray's corners carry on past its walls and each one is shelved. The dome's floor plate lands on those 4 shelves and touches the box nowhere else.
  • A 4 mm slotBetween the top of the wall and the underside of the plate there is a gap on all four sides. What shows in it is the colour of the counters standing inside.
  • The shutterThe slit is open for the full height of the shell, so the telescope is visible from the observatory floor to the apex — and the mouth of it clears the dome.

Every part of it

58printed parts
7.5 × 7.5 × 4.3inches, closed
18.3 ozon the scale
37.5 hon the printer
64squares, 8 a side
32inlaid dark tiles
24counters, 12 a side
5filament colours
10 mmair under the dome
  • Tray, walls, corner posts, light squares1
  • Dome, floor plate, shutter, telescope1
  • Inlaid dark squares32
  • Sun counters12
  • Moon counters12

58 parts in 5 colours, and the only move you have to make to start a game is picking the roof up.