AMTG Virtual Copernicus (Geocoin club June2008) GC

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Very large coin with LOTS of heft. 2 inches by 1.6 inches 3.5 mm thick 39 grams antique gold. Available in other metal colors, Unusual shape in the form of a plaque.. The front has extensive 3-D work depicting Copernicus' work. The reverse has depiction of Copernicus and information on his life and work. An excellent coin.

Info on the coin:  Distributed by geocoinclub. This coin is a rendition of the Universe as Copernicus saw it.  He was called crazy for purporting that the solar system revolved around a stationary sun and not the Earth. Copernicus saw the future and the way things were even in the face of adversity.  This coin is a replica of one of his sky atlases and a list of his, now well accepted, ideas.

Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a scientifically based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe.  His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution.

• There is no one center if all the celestial circles or spheres
• The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and and of the lunar sphere.
• All the spheres revolve about the sun as their mid-point, and therefore the sun is the center of the universe.
• The ratio of the earth's distance from the sun to the height of the firmament is so much smaller than the ratio of the earth's radius to it's distance from the sun that the distance from the earth to the sun is imperceptible in comparison with the height of the firmament.
• Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament but friday m the earth's motion. The earth together with it's circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on it's fixed points in a daily motion, while the firmament and highest heaven abide unchanged.
• What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from it's motion but from the motion of the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.
• The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but from the earth's. The motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens.
• The motion of this coin may be tracked about the earth at geocaching.com

So many of my trackables have been muggled that I only release GCs as virtuals. If you do not approve of this, please leave it in the cache for a cache who understands. Thanks. AR