So, I've been away from the discussion for over a year, and only recently picked up Skyrim again. When I last looked into it, the collective knowledge on the Eye was a disheartened shrug. In the past year, has anything at all been learned?

-- http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:College_of_Winterhold_(place)#Lectures

You may also want to note that the http://images.uesp.net/1/17/ON-quest-The_Orrery_of_Elden_Root.jpg bears great resemblance to the Eye, and has some kind of scrying capabilities. Further, Queen Ayrenn is extremely interested in the Staff of Magnus after she uses the Orrery.

You can read about the Orrery at Elden Root here:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Aurbic_Enigma_4:_The_Elden_Tree

and in this quote: "As for the Osseous Orrery: can anyone really claim to comprehend the full intentions of Anumaril in his metamorphosis to instrumentality? Do we even know how many axes of circumpenetration its arms rotate through?" — Morian Zenas, Commentaries on Beredalmo (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Loading_Screens)

... I suppose, for the sake of completeness, it is also necessary to mention that http://www.imperial-library.info/content/kinmune is said to have been imprisoned beneath Sarthaal by the Nords, and that some people conflate Queen Ayrenn and KINMUNE.