Abstract
THE problem of the distances of the stars is of peculiar interest in connection with the Copernican system. The greatest objection to this system, which must have been more clearly seen by astronomers themselves than by any others, was found in the absence of any apparent parallax of the stars. If the earth performed such un immeasurable circle around the sun as Copernicus maintained, then, as it passed from side to side of its orbit, the stars outside the solar system must appear to have a corresponding motion in the other direction, and thus to swing back and forth as the earth moved in one and the other direction. The fact that not the slightest swing of that sort could be seen was, from the time of Ptolemy, the basis on which the doctrine of the earth's immobility rested. The difficulty was simply ignored by Copernicus and his immediate successors.
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Professor Newcomb on the Distances of the Stars. Nature 56, 139–140 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056139a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056139a0