On Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 12:35:28 AM UTC-6, Gerald Kelleher wrote:
Celestial sphere enthusiasts have traded this area of research for next to
nothing in their attempt to bypass the central Sun for both daily rotation and
the orbital surface rotation that is best appreciated via the polar day/night
cycle.

Viewing the dynamics of the Earth as a rotating body in the simplest fashion -
factoring out the complexities of the Earth's orbit around the Sun from that
rotation - does not in any way interfere with accepting the primacy of the
day/night cycle when studying biological cycles.

Not in any way whatever.

Still, it is true that Newton's claim that the same laws of physics operate in
the motions of the Solar System as with ordinary objects on Earth can be
difficult for some to accept.

After all, they do yield different results. Because friction is omnipresent on
Earth whenever anything is in motion - and so is the Earth's gravitational
field - one can't demonstrate celestial mechanics by, say, putting steel ball
bearings "in orbit" around a bar magnet.

I am trying to find where the fact that the planets orbit the Sun in nearly
the same plane, and all in the same direction, and in nearly circular orbits,
are considered three of several "miracles" of the Solar System, but the quote
evades a Google search at the moment.

John Savard