Copernicus is, of course, the person who introduced the heliocentric view of the solar system. The original edition of his book is
Sites
Some of the images are now broken links. I've come to the conclusion that without some clear statement of permission to use or of public domain status, I've no clear right to show those images. Historical originals are uncopyrighted, of course, but reproduced images may be copyrighted and even if not, someone might feel agrieved that they circulate on the web. The images linked by thumbnails are legitimate to use for personal educational purposes with credit or are public domain. The thumbnail link gives the credit and link to the source if needed.
Based on the Torun portrait of Copernicus.
Copernicus' problem.
Early Copernicans. Not exhaustive or authentic likenesses.
Venus at Maximum Elongation. Given the heliocentric hypothesis for all the planets, including Earth as a planet, it follows that you can determine the relative distances of the solar system. The inner planet radii are determined as in this figure. The outer planet radii take a bit more trigonometry, but they can be found easily enough (Ze-47).
