This is a cross post from another Flat Earth forum, since i havent been able to glean anything useful there. Im hoping you guys can help.
The Flat Earth Theory seems to be a predominantly nothern/inner latitudes thing - most of its proponents live in North America. This is evident from the north-centric views of the Flat Earth.
Trouble is, from the perspective of someone who had lived most of their life in southern/outer latitudes, most of what is said doesn't really wash.
The prime example of this is Sigma Octantis, the southern pole star.
In the northern/inner areas of Earth, the stars appear to wheel around the star known as Polaris - it's brightness and proximity to the celestial pole make it perfect for determining true north. It is almost a fixed point in the sky, and this would be true in both Flat and Spherical scenarios.
However, in the outer latitudes of the Flat Earth theory, there would be no pole star and we would see the stars flying overhead much faster that near the centre of the disc.
This is not the case.
Instead, the southern latitudes have their own pole star, Sigma Octantis, around which all the stars circle. They also circle at the same rate as those in the northern/inner latitudes - something that would be impossible if viewed from a disc.
An object with two poles is necessarily 3 dimensional.
So I would like to hear the Flat Earth explanation for this.
Diagrams and animations encouraged.
I don't hold to this or anything, but I heard from some that the Earth with an ice wall has a firmament dome wrapped around the Earth, giving a mirror effect, with the concave nature of the dome, therefore all observers in the south hemiplane looking due south will see the same stars.
Basically, inside the firmament, there is an astroplate, a flat plane of stars with two sides, a dual astroplane rotating inside the firmament and above our Earth.
In the Northern hemiplane, we see the north star rotation and Polaris as a barycenter, as we move south, the northern stars disappear below the horizon and the southern stars enter our field of vision. The north stars are the under part of the plate that we see directly, the southern stars are the other side of the plate (the top), which reflect off of the firmament dome and comes into view near the southern hemiplane. We are in reality looking up at a reflection off of the dome of the top of the dual astroplane, with sigma octantis being the center point star on the other side of the astroplane.
Here's an illustration on a video:
Now, concave mirrors, and any mirror surrounding you will reflect the same center point given that it's an equal distance away from it. So, all across the Hemiplane, all across the circumference of the ice wall and to the firmament, we will see the same stars because the top astroplate is reflecting.
The south star reflection will follow the same rotation of the north stars, but will appear to rotate in the opposite direction because it's mirrored.
I hope that makes sense, I don't hold to the ice wall model or existence of this firmament, but it sounds like an interesting theory to have given you grant those.