Star Size Illusion

On the topic of the size of the stars, see this story which describes that the visible stars are truly huge:

The Popular Creation Story of Astronomy Is Wrong (Archive)

Under a model with distant stars the sizes would need to be of tremendous proportions, and was one of the early controversies in astronomy. The geocentric model's closer stars seemed more reasonable. Some Copernicans claimed the mystery of God and later ones postulated an "optical illusion".

Also see this Scientific American article about the history of Heliocentrism vs. Geocentrism starting on p.75:

The Case Against Copernicus — Scientific American