The Distance of the Stars According to the Followers of Pythagoras or Copernicus Who Locate the Sun in the Center of the World

Abstract

The Pythagoreans, in placing the sun in the center of the world and denying that the fixed stars move, base their measurements of the fixed stars not on the radius of the earth (because they look upon the radius of the earth as virtually nothing when compared with the unbelievable distance of the heavens) but rather on the radius of the great orbit of the earth, from which they seek a parallax. Regarding this, we must take note that:

• (1) The radius of the great orbit of the earth is the distance of the earth from the sun which, according to Ptolemy, is assumed to be 1210 radii of the earth or 1,040,600 German miles. See preceding Chapter 23.

• (2) The great orbit of the earth (which, according to the Ptolemaic or Tychonic theory is the orbit or path of the sun) is the circuit which the earth makes about the sun every year. According to Ptolemy, this is found to be 7,606 radii of the earth or 6,540,914 German miles.

• (3) The sphere of the great orbit of the earth (or, in the Ptolemaic system, the sphere of the sun or sphere of the sun’s path) is said to be that spherical body (or, in our opinion, that empty Space) of which the mind has conceived and which the earth makes around the sun in its annual circuit.