t is said that the founder of astronomy was Nicolas
Copernicus. In order to make his point, Copernicus went against all the
religious and philosophical beliefs in the medieval times. Most people disagreed
with him because of his work in De Revolutionibus, but some
were with him every step of the way. One of those people was Goethe who
in many books expressed high support for this scientists hard at work.
Nicolas Copernicus worked for thirty years checking and rechecking his observations. In his book, De Revolutionibus, he recorded every observation that took place. With that, he also made many diagrams showing in what he believed in. Unfortunately, these books were lost for three - hundred years after his death.
Nicolas Copernicus spoke about his ideas. What had started him to get the ideas of learning about astronomy, was after he had spoke at Eternal City. He knew right then what his vocation would be. It was to study the moon, sun, how long the year was, and how long the month should be.
The places where Nicolas Copernicus worked were the towers of Halisburg, Allenstein, and of Frauenburg. These were the towers where he recorded the proof that he needed in order to explain to the world why he was the founder of the heliocentric planetary theory.
To go into more depth with Copernicus's theory, it is said that at Lateran Council he still did not have all of the answers. He did however say that the length of the months, the years, and the motions of the sun and moon were what he wanted to find the answers to.
Seventy - five years after he made his observations, Nicolas Copernicus theory was the basis for the Gregorian calender. We use the Gregorian calender everyday to record what our busy lives are going to have in store for us. The way we keep our time has also been greatly influenced by the works of Nicolas Copernicus.
I feel our world would be different without the theory of Nicolas Copernicus. His observations will follow us through history in astromical science. He was a man who found proof in what he believed in instead of just providing a theory. In effect the way we keep our time has been affected by the efforts of Nicolas Copernicus.
Our world would also be different by what astronomers know about the earth. I feel that a good example for all of the accomplishments of Nicolas Copernicus would be from a person who was there. That person was Goethe.
It was in a book that Goethe once wrote,"Of all discoveries and opinions, none many have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely become known as round and complete in itself when it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of being the center on the universe.
Never, perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind - for by this admission so many things vanished in mist and smoke! What became our Eden, our world of innocence, piety, and poetry; the testimony of the senses; the conviction of a poetic - religious faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to let all this go and offered every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its coverts authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of thought so far unknown, indeed not even dreamed of.
OTHER SITES TO VISIT
http://www.windows.ivv.nasa.gov/people/ren_epoch/copernicus.html
http://www.blupete.com/Literature?Biographies/Science/Copernicus.htm
htthttp:nicolas.htmlp://www.es.rice.deu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catp;pg/FIles/coprnics.html
http://u-net.com/set/index/nicolas.html
Sources :
1. February, 1998
Peter Laudry
peteblu@blupete.com
P. O. Box 1200,
Darmounth, Nova Scotia
CANADA
B2y 4B8
2. www.knight.org/advent
