Astronomia nova

"To set down in books the apparent paths of the planets [vias
planetarum apparentes] and the record of their motions is especially
the task of the practical and mechanical part of astronomy; to discover
their true and genuine path [vias vero veras et genuinas] is . . .the
task of contemplative astronomy; while to say by what circle and lines
correct images of those true motions may be depicted on paper is the
concern of the inferior tribunal of geometers"

Kepler 'Mysterium Cosmographicum'

It happened that not only did the 'inferior tribunal of geometers'
manage to convince the mechanical cataloguing astronomers that they
were the rightful inheritors of observations,they actually managed to
dispense with geometry altogether.Where planetary motions were once
marked from the stellar background to their heliocentric orbital forms
based on the annual motion of the Earth (Contemplative astronomy),the
empiricists managed to force the depictions into a quasi-geocentric
framework.

Even allowing for the unfamiliarity with the difference between
collecting and cataloguing observed motions and their translation into
direct perceptions of what those motions constitute,whether inferring a
heliocentric axis,noting the illusion caused by finite light speed or
any other astronomical relevence,it is with great dismay that the
mechanical end shades off into really stupid agendas that now force
observations to dance to their tune ('predictions') rather than letting
the great celestial cycles dictate and instruct us.

The gauntlet of insults heaped in this direction is nothing compared
to the vandalism visited on the great heliocentric astronomers,their
reasoning and the insights which we inherited.there is absolutely
nothing difficult in all this,unfamiliarity perhaps,but nothing that a
person cannot intuitively recognise in terms of size of our parent star
and the enormity of our annual orbital motion.Without that appreciation
it becomes impossible to move on to the vastness of stellar islands and
the other great motions we participate in.

The designation of astronomer as Kepler knew it still exists for those
who are open to avenues beyond the telescope and exist in the highest
faculties of human thinking and endeavor.They are not for the mean
spirited or narrow minded for they come as all great things do,from the
generosity of the spirit who breaks through his individuality and where
he can stand before the great cycles that make physical existence
possible,not as a commentator and a theortical guesser but as a
participator in the great sweep of life within the great cosmological
cycles.

These things never promote themselves and in truth ,men cannot deny or
affirm them but they can bring to people the sense of where the
cosmological and the individual can mesh and seperate,it draws the
heavens down to man and man to look out on the heavens as a sweet and
mutual appreciation.If the cosmos is pitiless and men engage it in that
way it also becomes magnificent through the great refinements which is
a neccessary condition of being an astronomer,the answers can only be
as good as those who are prepared to meet what is set before them first
hand and it never draws a person to the pages but to look outside.That
is where our civilisation became lost in the dilution of the
appreciation in size,scale and age of the great cycles.

Leave the equations and significant digits for a while and return to
the geometric representations through which the great heliocentrists
worked for clearly the misintepretation of one particular
representation led to a great error.There may be no tribunal or
commission in existence that can weigh the wrong conceptual turn but
it is hoped that in the interest of sincerity and so much else,men will
eventually attempt to deal with these matters rather than burying
themselves further in a concept that never worked.

So it ends,at least for me.