| The Celestial Globe |
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In
about 240BC, Aristarchus
the Greek told everyone that the earth and the other planets are
in orbit around the Sun.
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Ptolemy
(AD 85 - 165) disagreed, and told everyone that the sun and other planets
were in orbit around the earth, his mathematical explanation being adopted
by the Church for 1600 years
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Aryabhata
(476 - 550) told everyone that the Earth and other planets orbited around
the Sun. He believed that the Moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight
and that the orbits of the planets are ellipses, his value for the length
of the year being 365 days 6 hours 12 minutes 30 seconds. But he lived
in India.
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And in 1543 Mikolaj Kopernik (Polish) told everyone that the earth and the other planets are in orbit around the sun. His book was placed on a banned list by the Church from 1616 to 1835, possibly because it included this passage. At the middle of all things lies the sun. As the location of this luminary in the cosmos, that most beautiful temple, would there be any other place or any better place than the centre, from which it can light up everything at the same time? Hence the sun is not inappropriately called by some the lamp of the universe, by others its mind, and by others its ruler. |
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In
1600 the Inquisition
(Radical Christian Fundamentalists) burned Giordano
Bruno (Italian) alive, at the stake (partly) because he told everyone
that the earth and the other planets are in orbit around the sun (and
they didn't like him anyway).
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Tyge
Brahe (Danish) kept himself alive by devising his own system, whereby
all the planets orbit around the sun, but that the sun orbits around
the earth.
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So
it was Johannes
Kepler who finally grabbed the limelight and pushed through the
Heliocentric view of the solar system, well into the 17th Century, and
came up with his three laws of planetary motion which tell us that 1)
orbits are not round, they are elliptical, 2) that the speed of the
planet varies according to which part of the orbit it is in, and 3)
that the speed of the planet also depends on the size of the orbit.
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Which is all very interesting and true, but to be honest, for the purposes of stargazing in the Corvedale, it is easier to imagine that everything goes around the stationary earth. If there are any children, or adults who are easily confused, please stop reading now. Please don't put this in your GCSE paper, because unless the examiner is a unreconstructed member of the Inquisition, you will fail the exam miserably.
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OK,
its 17th February 1600, the pong of the fire that did for poor old Bruno
is still in our nostrils,
Galileo Galilei is keeping a very low profile, writing in code,
and tugging his forelock to the Pope. So it would be wise, dear reader,
not to antagonise His Holiness, and as it matters little to our enjoyment
of the skies over Aston Munslow, we will indulge in a little fantasy.
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Let's explain about the cosmos. Imagine a giant beach ball, painted black on the inside, with tiny holes or stars perforating it, allowing the light of the angels to stream through. Outside it the Almighty has his dominions, and this is probably where heaven is, where all the angels, and the souls of the departed are, awaiting the final trump on the day of judgement. At the centre of this beach ball, is the earth, where we humans have fallen from grace, and must pace out our lives, eating turnips and being in serfdom to the Ruling classes, income tax etc.
In between the Celestial Globe, with its Fixed Stars, are the wandering Planets, comprising Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, The Sun, Mercury, Venus and The Moon. Each of these is embedded in a Crystalline (glass) sphere, and these rotate inside each other, the energy to make them move emanating from Primum Mobile, the Prime Mover, and then God, who turns the Celestial Sphere from the outside. Displayed in the firmament are the signs of the Zodiac, against the background of which the Sun and planets move throughout the year.
Are you still reading? Good. You clearly have a good sense of self preservation and a healthy respect for organised religion.
Click here to waste a few hours
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