I don't think so. Assuming circular orbits is certainly more "almost right" than "wrong" to me. By the way, Copernicus' circular heliocentric model was refined

I don't think so. Assuming circular orbits is certainly more "almost right" than "wrong" to me. By the way, Copernicus' circular heliocentric model was refined a few decades (not centuries) later by Kepler with elliptic orbits.