Copernicus

They both belived that the Sun was in the center of the solar system.

Johannes Kepler found out that planets move in ellipses and move at variable speeds as they travel round the sun. The former theory of Copernicus was not wrong, but Kepler's theory was found to be more accurate when accurate observational methods were developed.

Later Kepler's theory was backed up by theory when Newton's law of gravitation came along. However in the 20th century Einstein's theory of relativity produced some small corrections to the Kepler/Newton theory.

It was after Galileo made two important discoveries with the telescope: first the four largest moons of Jupiter, secondly the phases of Venus.

The old system of Ptolemy modelled the Sun and planets as orbiting round the Earth, and scripture said that all objects in the sky revolve around the Earth. But Jupiter's moons showed that this principle was not universal, raising doubts in Galileo's mind about its validity.

In the Ptolemaic system Venus's orbit is inside the Sun's as they both go round the Earth. Galileo reasoned that if this was true Venus must always appear as a crescent in his telescope. But as he continued observing, he found that Venus could appear gibbous (more than half) at certain times, and as a crescent at others.

So after finding two faults with the Ptolemaic system, Galileo reasoned that the other model, that of Copernicus (1543) must be true. Both models represented the planets' movements reasonably accurately, including retrograde motion and all the rest, so there was no definitive way of deciding which of them was right, even if there were problems with one of them, because Tycho also had a model that was geocentric but explained Venus's phases correctly.

If Copernicus's model was correct, Galileo reasoned that all of it must be right, and that included that fact that the Sun was at the centre, with the Earth and other planets travelling round it. This contradicted the scriptures and, combined with Galileo's notoriously combative temperament, it led to the famous dispute with the Vatican.

Nicolaus Copernicus's scientific ideas regarding the universe and specifically the idea of heliocentrism were at odds with the generally accepted ideas of his time. It was difficult for people to accept these new ideas, made even more difficult by the Catholic Church's powerful opposition to them for some time.

Not by the scientific community, but his extensive data was used by Keppler to figure out that planets had eliptical orbits. this led to kepplers laws of planetary motion.

Basically, Copernicus used math to figure things out. To draw a figure for himself or for publication, he might use a compass or a straightedge, but what motivated his change from a geocentric to a heliocentric system---i.e., from an Earth-centered to a Sun-centered system---was a combination of aesthetics and mathematics. The reason people took him seriously is because of the latter: he provided a mathematical basis for saying that the Sun, and not Earth, lay at the center of our planetary system.

Yes. Contrary to popular belief, by the time of Copernicus scholars knew Earth to be round.

He didn't know it, he just brought out a new theory that showed that with the Sun at the centre the planets' paths could be explained more simply.

That was in 1543 and Kepler produced another heliocentric theory in 1609 which had the planets moving in elliptical orbits round the Sun.

The only thing in favour of Kepler's theory at the time was that it explained the planets' positions more accurately than previous theories. But 80-90 years later Newton's discoveries in gravity and the laws of motion were used to prove by theory that the planets must move in elliptical orbits.

It doesn't explain the parallax displacement IE if it is true, why don't the stars in the sky move December vs June? The Earth is supposed to be on the other side of the sun and the sky should change BUT at least with the technology of their days it didn't.

If the planet is rotating at 1000 miles an hour, how come there's no wind?

Why does Mars in the sky sometimes move backwards?

Lastly, there was the 30 year war going on in w/c among other things the Protestants and Catholic were fighting. No point in demoralizing/distracting the troops with esoteric gobbledy gook.

His theory was that the earth revolves around the sun, as opposed to the popular belief at the time that the sun revolves around the earth. He was right.

Yes, Copernicus was eventually proven to be correct. But at the time he said he could not prove his hypothesis and taught it as just that - an hypothesis. He never got himself in trouble with the Catholic Church. Galileo, on the other hand, picked up the theory of Copernicus and taught it as proven fact, which it wasn't. THAT is what got Galileo into trouble. He actually had many supporters in the Church, including the pope.

Several things limit which celestial objects can be seen with a telescope on Earth.

- The apparent magnitude of the object.

- The telescope you are using, tracking system and camera capability.

- Weather conditions, atmospheric and light pollution affecting airglow.

- The elevation of the object: lower in the sky means a thicker slice of atmosphere to interfere, more limitation.

- Your elevation relative to sea level: lower elevation means a thicker slice of atmosphere to interfere, more limitation.

- Red Shift - the object you are observing is moving away so fast that the color of the light reaching us has dropped into the infrared range, invisible to the human eye.

Generally, the faintest objects observable in visible light with 8m ground-based telescope is about 27.

All of the planets plus the sun revolve around the Earth

He attended the University of Bologna, the University of Padua, the University of Ferrara, and Jagiellonian University. That is all I know.

The term Scientific Revolution reflects the importance of Copernicus' contention that the Earth rotated on its axis and revolved around the Sun. The term Revolution was then used to describe the overthrow of old ideas, or old political systems. His view of the Universe challenged preconceived notions that had been accepted unquestioningly for thousands of years. His work opened the door for Kepler and Galileo to begin to explore what is, as opposed to what people assume to be.

Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model of the universe, with the Sun at the center and the planets orbiting around it, while Ptolemy's model placed the Earth at the center. By providing a simpler explanation for planetary motion and accurately predicting the positions of celestial bodies, Copernicus's model challenged the complexity of Ptolemy's geocentric theory and gained acceptance over time.

Amadeus is best

He was the first person in history to create a complete and general system, combining mathematics, physics, and cosmology.

It was not an immediate improvement and actually it used more epicycles than the Ptolemaic mode so was more complicated.

But the idea that the Sun is at the centre was taken up by Kepler in his studies of planets' orbits that led to the laws of planetary motion and eventually to the dynamic model of the solar system devised by Newton and others, which is the generally accepted model at the present time.

He influenced the world by spreading intellectual independence by going against the church, provoking other scientists such as Galileo to question the churches power in science and finally started the scientific revolution (Many inventions and new ideas).

One of the things he was bothered by was the long-held belief of Aristotle that

objects, including the Earth, naturally come to rest unless they are forced to move by

an external force(the motion of the other planets was considered special- they had the

property of quintessence so that their natural state was to move in circles). One thing

that bothered Copernicus is that nobody could imagine a force large enough to keep the

Earth moving around the Sun. Galileo and Newton understood that objects had inertia-

that they tended to keep moving in a straight line at constant speed (or sit still) unless

acted on by an external force- in the cases of objects 'naturally' coming to rest, friction

was identified as the responsible force. So for the Earth, there doesn't need to be an

external force to keep it moving, just so long as it isn't being affected by friction. As we

will learn in subsequent chapters, gravity is what keeps the Earth moving in an ellipse

around the Sun rather than just moving through space in a straight line.

There was another prevailing argument against the moving Earth. It went something

like this: if the Earth were to move around the Sun, it would have to be traveling at

speeds of around 30 km/s to make it all the way around in one year (that bit's pretty

much right). People argued that if a bird were to drop from a tree to snatch up a worm,

and it took one second for it land, the Earth would have therefore moved some 30 km

out from under the bird, leaving it mighty confused in a neighboring county just before

it met with a presumably unpleasant and messy landing. Since birds had been observed

to drop from trees to eat worms, with confusion and harm coming only to the worm,

people argued that there was no way the Earth could be moving around the Sun. What

these people did not understand is the concept of relative motion: the bird and the air

were moving around the Sun, with the Earth at 30 km/s, so the velocity of both the bird

and air, relative to the Earth, were basically zero (not counting a gentle breeze or the

bird's downward velocity as it fell).

In 1530, Copernicus completed and gave to the world his great work De Revolutionibus, which asserted that the earth rotated on its axis once daily and traveled around the sun once yearly: a fantastic concept for the times.

It represented a change in scientific thought

The Church maintained the biblical view that the Earth was at the centre of the universe. They heard of Copernicus's idea but said that until enough evidence could be produced for it they would maintain the scriptural view of the universe.

Enough evidence was produced in the 18th century but by that time opinions on both sides were well entrenched by a damaging dispute between the Church and Galileo, who said he was cleverer than all the cardinals, so it took considerably longer for the official Catholic position to change.

The retrograde motion of the planets is well modelled by both the Ptolemaic system and the Copernican system, and by the other models.

But the Copernican system explains it more simply because, for example, Mars's retrograde motion is caused simply when Mars is overtaken by the Earth, which goes more quickly round the Sun.

Thus an observer on the Earth sees Mars appearing to go 'backwards' on the ecliptic around the time of closest approach (opposition). This can be easily demonstrated by assuming simple circular orbits.