Natural Science Forum / Physics / Relativity / July 2006

Those poor guys wasted so much effort  and all because Newton needed to
create the AU by referencing planetary motion with the celestial sphere
geometry and the  calendrically based Ra/Dec system -

http://www.opencourse.info/astronomy/introduction/02.motion_stars_sun/celestial_
sphere_anim.gif

The reference of axial rotation to celestial sphere geometry morphed
into orbital motion to aether/absolute space hence these quaint
pseudo-authorative 20th century  concepts  form that website * .

True and local time which Newton correctly identified as the Equation
of Time correction is based,at least in its heliocentric adaption, on
the rate of change of orbital orientation as axial rotation passes back
to noon.It is not at all obvious that the Earth changes its orientation
and extremely difficult to perceive as that orbital orientation changes
runs almost parallel with axial rotation yet it is crucial to
understand the distinction between natural noon and 24 hour clock noon
as astronomers understand it.

It has taken a century to demonstrate the warped-space-every-valid
-point -is-the-center in graphic detail,even theorists should be
horrified that it is all part and parcel of Newton's scheme to create
the AU by refering axial rotation to a celestial sphere.

* "Poincaré has finally objected to the hypothesis as being
incomplete. New experiments could bring new terms into evidence and we
would require new hypotheses if, as expected, results are negative. The
question of the complete elimination of absolute motion was therefore
posed and was addressed by Lorentz(2), Poincaré(3), and Einstein(4).
     It is no longer permissible to overlook the difference between
"local time" and "true time", which was an essential point when we were
content to explain the negative results observed up until now and a few
others analogous. For us to render a full account, lets consider two
points A and B which move with a constant absolute velocity v in the
direction AB. A luminous wave, starting from A at instant t, will
arrive (Oeuvres 363) at B at instant t'. It will have to travel ".