<a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/heliocentric-pantheon-interview-with.html" target="_blank" title="450px-oculus1.jpg"><img src="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/450px-oculus1.jpg" alt="450px-oculus1.jpg" align="left" border="0" height="347" hspace="8" vspace="8" width="262" /></a>A fascinating <a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/heliocentric-pantheon-interview-with.html" target="_blank">interview</a> with famed film and sound editor Walter Murch (<em>Apocalypse Now</em>, <em>The Conversation</em>, <em>The Godfather</em>, er <em>Return to Oz</em>) in which he outlines, amongst many other things, his theory that Copernicus' 16th century ideas about the heliocentric solar system were inspired by those of the 3rd century BC astronomer Astriarchus<sup>*</sup>,  encoded in the roof of Rome's Pantheon (c 125 AD).

Read the interview – it's not as crazy an idea as you might think!

<em>* Interestingly the lunar crater Astriarchus is the most common site for the mysterious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_lunar_phenomenon" target="_blank">transient light phenomenon</a>.</em>

Thanks to <a href="http://www.techgnosis.com" target="_blank">Erik Davis</a> for first telling me about Murch's cosmic outlook.