h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not to be in article but an interesting aside:
The Greek philosopher Democritus (450–370 B.C.) proposed that the bright band on the night sky known as the Milky Way might consist of distant stars.[16] Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), however, believed the Milky Way to be caused by "the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together" and that the "ignition takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere...
An attempt at finding a parallax showed they were not in the atmosphere.
The Syrian-born Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) proposed the Milky Way galaxy to be "a myriad of tiny stars packed together in the sphere of the fixed stars".[23]
Actual proof of the Milky Way consisting of many stars came in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used a telescope to study the Milky Way”==> from Wikipedia/Galaxy

Entry: Nicolaus Copernicus - A68827774
Author: Shagbark - U170775

page turner

A quick glance tells me you haven't corrected his name in the entry


<><--- requires a full-stop


Could you add some tags to the section "His Astronomical Theory" as the huge block of text makes it very difficult to read


at his uncles insistence = uncles requires an apostrophe


<>
That second sentence doesn't flow, I think it should be one long sentence with a semi-colon or colon perhaps,
"This also suited a world view in which the leaders of the church considered man the 'Crown of Creation' and had assumed that the maker of all things would have placed him in the centre of creation: a view that even coloured their interpretation of holy scripture."


Your footnotes need attention:
#2 needs a full-stop;
#3 is adrift of the word Knights, duke should be Duke, and also the footnote requires a full-stop at the end;
#4 is adrift of the word Church


<<...including the moons of Jupiter, did Pope Paul V, issue an order that 'heliocentric ideas could not be defended'.>>
the comma after Pope Paul V is not necessary


He died May 24, 1543, at age 70,
=
He died 24 May, 1543, at age 70,


Project Copernicus is a professional chamber orchestra and ensemble based in Miami, Florida. We take our inspiration from the vision and courage of the great astronomer Nicolas Copernicus. In the same way that Copernicus the astronomer realigned our perception of the physical universe, Copernicus the project strives to realign the musical paradigm...#footnote 5 My Space- about Project Copernicus

The correct way to display a chunk of quoted text is to blockquote then attribute (note the addition of tags):

Project Copernicus is a professional chamber orchestra and ensemble based in Miami, Florida. We take our inspiration from the vision and courage of the great astronomer Nicolas Copernicus. In the same way that Copernicus the astronomer realigned our perception of the physical universe, Copernicus the project strives to realign the musical paradigm...
- My Space - about Project Copernicus

Hi Shagbark,
Thanks for adding what you have.

May I suggest that you break up the massive paragraph ‘His Astronomical Theory‘ into a number of paragraphs to make it a little less formidable.

Also would you put in a note of explanation for what the ‘Royal Prussian Diet’ is, (or readers may have to go to Wonky to find out.)

Deke

I removed the h from his name two weeks ago but for some reason didn't notice that it needed a u. That is now rectified. Let me see if I can come up with a footnote for the Prussian Diet.

Actually there are several alternative spellings o f his name.
See for example http://historymedren.about.com/library/who/blwwcopernicus.htm

I mentioned in my first post that it's Nicolaus http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/copernicus.shtml
according to the BBC. Wiki also gives his name as Nicolaus, as does the Roman Catholic Church: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04352b.htm so that's the spelling you should use IMHO

I have changed it to the spelling you, the Catholic Church, and sever others prefer. I am going to break for lunch now and will get to your other changes shortly.

Back from lunch got those, anything else?

not sure how this fits in but I found an interesting tidbit in the Catholic Encyclopeia under Nurenburg:
'In 1521 Luther's creed was preached by some of the clergy, among whom was Andrew Osiander, preacher at St. Lornzkirche; there was also a distinct leaning towards the new teaching among the members of the council. They prohibited processions, passion plays during the Easter tide, and other celebrations. After 1524 the possessions of the monasteries and clerical institutions were confiscated; in 1525 the council accepted Luther's religion; the Dominicans, Carmelites and Minorites were forbidden to preach or to hear confessions; a preacher was placed over convents and the reception of any more novices forbidden. About the middle of the sixteenth century the city had become almost Protestant; only the members of the Teutonic Knights remained faithful;' Why put a zealot like Osiander in charge of printing a work by a Catolic Canon?

Hi again Shagbark

Re your comment in post 32
>>Why put a zealot like Osiander in charge of printing a work by a Catolic Canon?<<

Which rather begs the question of your article; why didn’t Copernicus himself publish ‘his’ theory before nearly the end of his life, when apparently he had the tacit approval of the church. You don’t say but was it perhaps that he was feared criticism or repercussions despite the assurances he had from the church?

There are a couple of other questions that I think need attention:


>>For some years, Copernicus had watched the sky from a turret above the Cathedral…<<
Which cathedral would that be? You don’t say where he was during this auspicious time in his life.

Also:
>>Copernicus had meticulously worked out the orbits by means of trigonometry and shared this information with his disciples.<<

Was he really that good at maths? Evidently his observations and calculations didn’t lead him to realise that he was dealing with ellipses and not circles?

Is ‘disciples’ the right word in this context? Followers, acolytes, or students perhaps, but they weren’t following a holy doctrine to be disciples.

Re your . I feel for you, as there does seem to be a considerable time in any articles gestation these days. By my count last night there were only two more in PR than in the picked ones in ‘What’s coming up‘ (37 to 39). So you may have a bit of a wait for one of those three coveted front page places each week.

Regards
Deke

Why didn't he publish earlier- perhaps he feeared criticism.
Probably the criticism he feared was from 'professional astronomers' not from the church.
Here he was an amateur, with no patron, no observatory backing him, and he was attacking an entrenched view.

As to how he could have overlooked using ellipses. Maybe he was philosophically opposed to them.
I remember many long years ago doing a high school science project where I first drew the orbits using ellipses and how instinctively wrong it seemed for each orbit to have two centres.
We have Newton and Kepler to look back on to reassure us. He did not.

the article with the forensic model states
Copernicus lived and worked at Frombork cathedral. For many years he was canon there and only carried out his astronomical studies in his spare time.
I am trying to include this information in the article (without stealing their language verbatum).

I replaced the word disciple with followers.
I originally meant the word in the sense: One who is adept in a discipline and looks up to the teacher of that discipline.
Such as a master of tae-kwon-do might have disciples.
Followers is also acceptable as Copernicus was first in this string of Helicentric proponents, and people like Kepler followed after.
This does not mean Copernicus was better at math than Kepler, only that he came first.

Have I made all the changes here?
I think I am at the limit of what I know on the subject.