On Monday, July 21, 2014 2:12:59 PM UTC+1, Mike Collins wrote:
oriel36 wrote:

These celestial sphere nuisances constitute a disruptive bunch for

although the use of a system based on timekeeping averages spread across

the 1461 day system may be useful for the astronomical version of

trainspotting by magnification hobbyists it disrupts appreciation of the

great insights of astronomy including the new one which partitions

retrograde resolution between inner and outer planets.



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.





Have you ever seen Mercury with your own eyes?

Copernicus never did.



"Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars. This, I see, is doubted by nobody. But the ancient philosophers wanted to arrange the planets in accordance with the duration of the revolutions. Their principle assumes that of objects moving equally fast, those farther away seem to travel more slowly, as is proved in Euclid's Optics. The moon revolves in the shortest period of time because, in their opinion, it runs on the smallest circle as the nearest to the earth. The highest planet, on the other hand, is Saturn, which completes the biggest circuit in the longest time. Below it is Jupiter, followed by Mars.
With regard to Venus and Mercury, however, differences of opinion are found.. For, these planets do not pass through every elongation from the sun, as the other planets do. Hence Venus and Mercury are located above the sun by some authorities, like Plato's Timaeus (38 D), but below the sun by others, like Ptolemy (Syntaxis, IX, 1) and many of the modems. Al-Bitruji places Venus above the sun, and Mercury below it. " Copernicus, De Revolutionibus

http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars...opernicus.html


Instead of pulling you up for trying to rewrite the work of astronomers,the issue is that those great men considered the Sun's motion through the Zodiac between Mars and the inner planets however 21st century tools shift the emphasis to the annual motions of the stars along the orbital plane by keeping the Sun pinned to the center of all observations and motions.

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

It would have been exceptionally difficult for astronomers in other eras including an era before the visual side of the internet emerged to make sense of all the motions that comprise that of the other planets and our own but now it is fairly easy .

What you see written by Copernicus is known as the 'Periodic times' argument where the Earth replaced the Sun's position and apparent motion -

" The 10th argument,taken from the periodic times, is as follows; the apparent movement of the Sun has 365 days which is the mean measure between Venus' period of 225 days and Mars' period of 687 days.Therefore does not the nature of things shout out loud that the circuits in which those 365 days are taken up has a mean position between the circuits of Mars and Venus around the Sun and thus this is not the circuit of the Sun around the Earth -for none of the primary planets has its orbit arranged around the Earth,but the circuit of the Earth around the resting Sun,just as the other planets,namely Mars and Venus,complete their own periods by running around the Sun." Kepler

Enjoy the SkyTel graphic as an educational tool which makes the grandstand view of Venus and its phases such a joy to behold by resolving the apparent retrograde motion of that planet as it moves against the direction of the background stars,stops and then swings in front of the Sun.