-----Original Message-----
From: paul_deema@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 20:26:16 +0000 (GMT)Neville JLove the imagery of your first paragraph! I believe the trendy vernacular is LOL.I answered J A quickly while working on something else -- the Bonkers Machine -- and neglected to provide the motion you suggest below. In my imagination, I thought of the Earth's relationship to the Sun in the the same way we tend to think of the Moon's relationship to the Earth -- "If we always see the same face, it can't be spinning!" but clearly J A did say 'stop'. You will recall a protracted but ultimately successful effort to convince one member that this is so. It is a common error and despite my slight affinity for this subject, I fell into the trap. If you will allow me to set the Earth spinning in this synchronous manner I believe that we will again see all the stars not just half of them.I agree that star trails -- about CP or EP -- do not demonstrate which bodies move and which don't and how. As I've remarked before, the planetary gear box is not so named idly. An explanation of what is occurring is possible regardless of which gear we've pinned to the mat. This whole debate about star trails is a mentally challenging frustrating largely acedemic exercise but I believe that the non existance of EP trails is a falsehood and I have not yet given up the fight to show that that is so. As they say in the movies -- Watch this Space!Paul D.