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contributions to astronomy


" Claudius Ptolemy devised models of the universe that were in correlation to Aristotelian natural philosophy. Basing his ideas on the earth being at rest and heavenly bodies moving in circular motions, Ptolemy devised models of the universe with many variables which created a great amount of complexity. Ptolemy used a number of devices to solve many of the discrepancies in Aristotle's astronomy while still staying true to Aristotle's natural philosophy. Ptolemy used equants to describe the visible change in a planet's speed made by an observer and he used epicycles to explain the retrograde motion made by planets. Although Copernicus did use epicycles in his model of the universe, Copernicus more easily explained the retrograde motion of the planets through his heliocentric view. In his final work De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543), Copernicus explained the daily revolution of the sun, moon, planets, and stars on the fact that the earth rotates on its axis. Copernicus also explained the orbit of earth and the planets which revolved around the static sun. "All of these planets have different periods of revolution, the period being greater the farther the planet is from the sun (Cohen, I. 35)." The difference in revolutions more simply explained retrograde motion. .
             Copernicus" model of the universe more easily demonstrated many phenomena that were observed or asked about the planets. However, there were many aspects to Copernicus" model that could not be so easily made fact and did not fit with observation. Copernicus was successful in calculating first the distance from Venus to the sun using basic trigonometry. Later he also calculated the other planets distances with much accuracy.(Cohen, I. 41) By knowing the distances the planets were from the sun, Copernicus was then able to calculate the time required for a planet to complete a revolution around the sun. Copernicus could now predict where the planet's position would be with respect to the earths position.


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