When observing the sky, people in ancient times believed that the stars were attached to the inside of a rotating sphere. Copernicus gave his name to the theory of a geocentric universe, and the Vatican spread its beliefs by threatening scientific heretics who claimed otherwise with the stake. Today, we know that we live on the edge of a nearly infinite and ever-expanding universe. In armillary spheres, the Earth is positioned in a network of bronze bands that symbolise the known planetary orbits of the time. The path of the Sun is represented by a wide band called the ecliptic circle.
