Re: Sun-Centered? (was:The Flat Earth?)
Doug O'Neal (oneal@astro.psu.edu)
12 May 1995 15:59:40 GMT
In article <paloD8FnyA.AFx@netcom.com> palo@netcom.com (Gerry Palo) writes:
> Indeed. Check out Joachim Schultz, "Rhythms and Movements of the Stars"
> (Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, NY).
> The patterns and movements made by the planets around the earth as
> centerpoint are astounding. And you only get them with the earth. If you
> take any of the other planets in the solar system the paths and loops
> made by the rest of the planets around it are seemingly random and
> chaotic. Only the earth makes around the particular planet the same kind
> of looped configuration that the earth makes around it.
This is not correct at all. Observe from any planet you like in our solar
system. Then the planets superior (farther from the sun) to that would
have oppositions and solar conjunctions and retrograde loops, just like
superior planets exhibit from Earth, predictable motions. Planets inferior
to your observing location would go through the cycles of morning appearance/
superior conjunction/evening appearance/inferior conjunction (assuming your
planet isn't rotating retrograde, in which case reverse morning and evening).
Again, exactly the same as what you see of Mercury and Venus from Earth.
> From a practical point of view, of course, one point of real interest in
> an earth centered point of view would be for navigational purposes with
> spacecraft. But it is interesting that there is much to be learned about
> the planetary movements, including the movements of sun and moon, that
> can only be revealed when you take the earth as your fixed reference point.
Again, this argument (the one I think you're making) is false. The saem
thing can be seen from any planet.
> Not that the geocentric model is any more or less real than the
> heliocentric. Each viewpoint reveals different aspects of reality.
--
The center of mass of the Earth/Sun system is well inside the Sun, so in
that sense the heliocentric system is more real. But of course, the SUn
is whipping around the galaxy and the galaxy moving relative to others.
Doug
|