[FT] Magnetic Bases

Okay, here's a weird question....

I've recently come into possession of one half of a model of a Cylon
Basestar.  Naturally, I intend to turn it into a space station, as in
that
photograph from More Thrust.  This is, in and of itself, harmless.
Unforunately, I happened to see an ad in the AS&S catalog today, which
offered for sale:

....5/8" x 5" long ball point pen...floats magnetically above a slek
black
base.  Give a a twirl and it will spin forever - well at least five
minutes....

Now, this Basestar bit is not all that heavy.  And I'm not going to be
adding all that much stuff to it.  And the idea of the space station
floating above the table is really appealing....  However, my past
experience with toys of this nature involve the floating object
inevitably
"sliding" to one side or the other, unless something it holding it in
place.	Anyone know if I could manage to do this somehow?  It's only
$14.95, so it's probably worth the investment, but I'd like some input
from
people who had a physics class or two first.
John X Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com
  "...is one of the secret masters of the world: a librarian.
They control information.  Don't ever piss one off."
  --Spider Robinson, The Callahan Touch.