The Great American Eclipse

It is 500 years since Copernicus first presented the reason why the Earth is in motion and the Sun remains stationary and central to the solar system however his work was incomplete in his effort to satisfy predictive astronomy, a throwback to an era when the Sun was thought to move through the background field of stars.

There should be no argument as to the actual loops accomplished by the inner planets Venus and Mercury -

http://www.popastro.com/images/plane...ary%202012.jpg

For those who get to enjoy the eclipse first hand it is impossible to do anything other than absorb the spectacle without giving too much thought to these issues and that is the way it is supposed to be. I saw the partial eclipse about 2 1/2 years ago and was fortunate that cloud cover made for a spectacular event. Afterwards it is fitting to demonstrate that the eclipse suspends the limiting observation of dawn/twilight appearances and provides a momentary glimpse of the solar system as it actually is courtesy of the shading by our moon. People may not believe in miracles but it is one.