Blue Herring wrote:

> That's exactly what it is :)  Kepler noted similarities between how 
> these platonic solids were nested and the orbital distances of the 
> planets.  He published drawings of  this model in a work called the 
> Mysterium Cosmographicum.  I think he wanted a real one to be made, but 
> I don't think he ever did.

Kepler struggled for years with this idea, but did use models, probably 
cheaply and simply made by himself, with no success.  I don't remember 
if there was a "prescribed order" to the solids and nesting of same, 
only that each attempt sent him back to another fit of calculation.  It 
was the eccentricity of the orbit of Mars, when he finally got the data 
compiled by Tycho that led him to try to fit the orbit to an ellipse. 
But each of his three laws of planetary motion were many years between 
them.  An admirable and determined man that fully earned the title of 
scientist.

Rich

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