Gerald Kelleher wrote:
It is 500 years since Copernicus first presented the reason why the Earth
is in motion and the Sun remains stationary and central to the solar
system however his work was incomplete in his effort to satisfy
predictive astronomy, a throwback to an era when the Sun was thought to
move through the background field of stars.

There should be no argument as to the actual loops accomplished by the
inner planets Venus and Mercury -

http://www.popastro.com/images/plane...ary%202012.jpg

For those who get to enjoy the eclipse first hand it is impossible to do
anything other than absorb the spectacle without giving too much thought
to these issues and that is the way it is supposed to be. I saw the
partial eclipse about 2 1/2 years ago and was fortunate that cloud cover
made for a spectacular event. Afterwards it is fitting to demonstrate
that the eclipse suspends the limiting observation of dawn/twilight
appearances and provides a momentary glimpse of the solar system as it
actually is courtesy of the shading by our moon. People may not believe
in miracles but it is one.


It's 500 years since Copernicus rehashed the theory of Aristarchus and then
covered up the source of his ideas by removing the references to him from
the published version.