On Monday, July 21, 2014 12:33:26 AM UTC+1, palsing wrote:
On Sunday, July 20, 2014 2:41:39 AM UTC-7, oriel36 wrote:



Anyone,and I mean anyone, can easily identify the motion of Venus and Mercury as they move out from behind the Sun and in the opposite direction to the annual motion of the background stars and then move to their widest point before swinging back in front of the central Sun.



Anyone, and I mean anyone, can place 2 sticks in the ground and line them up on any bright star of their choosing (except for the Sun, it doesn't work using the Sun), and then start their stopwatch and easily measure the amount of time that passes until they line up once again on that same star, which will be 23 56 04 every time, pick any star.



The only possible use of a foreground reference and for the annual motion of the stars (no stellar circumpolar element) is the central Sun itself as the stars move along the orbital plane from left to right of the Sun and go from twilight stars as they enter the Sun's glare and exit that glare later as dawn stars. The same with the inner planets as Venus goes from a twilight planet to a dawn planet as it passes in front of the Sun -

https://dague.net/wp-content/uploads...nus-phase1.jpg

The great astronomers had tracked the motion of the planets and the Sun through the field of the background stars which in itself is problematic but with the creation of the equatorial coordinate system these motions got bound up in a rotating celestial sphere known as RA/Dec so that even the framework for heliocentricity was lost for the sake of the timekeeping convenience which predicts positions and events within a celestial sphere universe. I don't expect anyone to know the difference between the original notion of the background stars without that giddy stellar circumpolar framework as opposed to the more productive framework which focuses attention on the central Sun as a foreground reference for the orbital motion of the Earth using the annual motion of the stars as a moving reference.




What could this possibly mean? Why does this work for virtually any star in the sky that is a reasonable distance from either pole, except for the Sun?

It means that people are not familiar with the annual motion of the stars nor the event which defines the Earth's orbital position in space whereby an extra 24 hours of orbital motion is seen to return the Earth to roughly the same position in space after 4 annual circuits of 365 days/rotations. The original determination was using the brightest star in the celestial arena but its observational relevance has since been lost although its impact as February 29th has not.


In truth, the amazing graphic for me is enchanting and it is one of those things where I can enjoy the spectacle privately as represents a 21st century view of the inner planets,their retrogrades and what they represent as a grandstand view of their motions -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdFrE7hWj0A

The annual motion of the stars due to the orbital motion of the Earth itself makes it a delight to behold hence I have every reason to praise these new tools as appreciation of these things would be exceptionally difficult if near impossible otherwise.

I will leave you with your two sticks and a clockwork solar system least you attempt another meaningless slanging match ,as far as I am concerned what you consider a hobby is on the same level as trainspotting and I have no problem whatsoever with that as long as you know you inhabit a celestial sphere universe for for no human mind -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V3rmDG5J8A

I too can enjoy the spectacle but also know there is another great motion of the stars which is swamped by the daily motion and it is then you enter into the realm of our astronomical ancestors.