johnreed take 1D

The Newtonian approach to planetary motion has no roots beyond
Flamsteed's attempt to hammer the calendar system into a calendrical
framework for the convenience of the Ra/Dec system.Anyone who cares to
base annual orbital motion of the Earth on a system of 3 years of 365
days and 1 year of 366 days to keep the return of a star fixed to 23
hours 56 min 04 sec ticking over,deserves the cartoon clockwork notions
of Newton on planetary motion that never worked.

The productive avenues which open up by keeping axial and orbital
motion seperate (as opposed to homgenising them in a 1461 day cycle)
should be obvious.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...2000_tezel.gif

The time lapse footage above represents both the Ptolemaic conclusions
of periodic looping motions for geocentricity and the accurate
Copernican conclusion of the orbital motion of the Earth and the other
planets around the Sun.

Newton lumped retrogrades in with Ptolemaic conclusions * when any
astronomer worth his salt would know that plotted retrogrades using the
stellar background are common to both geocentrist and heliocentric
astronomers ,the conclusions as to what those plotted motions represent
rely on isolating orbital motion observationally from the motion of the
Sun in Ptolemaic geocentricity and diurnal rotation for
heliocentricity.

"For to the earth planetary motions appear sometimes direct, sometimes
stationary, nay, and sometimes retrograde. But from the sun they are
always seen direct, " Newton

Who needs to be told what is entirely wrong with Newton's undignified
and baseless way he dumped retrogrades into geocentricity and jumped to
the Sun to explain heliocentricity.Not only is the continuity between
Ptolemaic plotting and Copernican heliocentricity lost,it makes it
impossible to appreceate the later Keplerian and Romerian refinements.

Going further still,as the sidereal justification works off a common
axis for axial and orbital motion,climatologists are stuck with an
absurd 17 century mechanism for cyclical seasonal changes based on a
non existent variable axial tilt,a hemispherical Earth -

http://www.diduknow.info/sun/images/high_low_sun.gif

Instead of allowing a change in orbital orientation against fixed axial
orientation thereby keeping them seperate,the sidereal justification
demands that seasonal changes are due to variable axial tilt.

Try another avenue,observed differential rotation in the Sun as a guide
for the dynamics of a rotating mantle in generating the Earth's
deviation from a perfect sphere and as a more accurate rotational
dynamic mechanism for crustal motion.

Keeping axial and orbital motion seperate and re-introducing them as
compound motions, and even grafting in the solar system's galactic
orbital motion, requires the recognition that the optically convenient
Ra/Dec system should not be allowed to dictate modelling where the
Earth's indepedent motions are required.

As most diciplines now tend towards presenting the appreceation of
animate life within geological and climatological conditions.it is
about time that astronomy got its act together and joined in.The days
of making men and their ideas bigger than the astronomical material is
over and thankfully so,there is always room for the merit system and
astronomy has always credited people with a better way of approaching
observations but as anyone can see,the insights have slowed to a
trickle or the observational data has been sent towards unsuitable
conclusions.

This week I can point out something of astronomical relevence.The
Earth's orbital orientation denoted by the division between shadow and
direct sunlight is aligning at dawn and dusk with terrestial longitudes
cutting through it.Here is a rough idea of what I mean by orbital
orientation in isolation -

http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronom...ages/04f15.jpg

At the Equinox,the deviation between axial and orbital orientations
are at a maximum at noon and a minumum at dawn and dusk.What this
represents observationally is that at dawn and dusk on the Equinox we
come closest to appreceating the orbital motion of the Earth in
isolation and axial rotation,for a few minutes aligns and meshes with
the direction of the Earth aro9und the Sun and the motion of the solar
system around the galaxy.

Of course it means setting aside telescopes to enjoy the perception and
then things start to become productive.