Details

Contrary to what is commonly suggested, the original Copernican model (with circular orbits) provided no improvement in the quantitative description of the heavens. As a kinematic equivalent to the Ptolemaic model, it suffered exactly the same kind of problems and needed exactly the same kind of corrections, such as eccentrics and equants. For this reason, the model was not immediately accepted by the majority of astronomers [1]. Nonetheless, the enormous advantage offered by the change in viewpoint eventually led to the dynamical view of Galileo, Kepler and Newton and to the birth of modern science.

Reference

[1] O. Gingerich, The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus, New York: Walker & Company, 2004.