[edby]

Choose any constellation due East or West on the horizon at a definite time. For example, in London the belt of Orion appears on the horizon, due East, at 21:07.
Using software such as Stellarion shows that Orion will appear to rotate anticlockwise as you change latitude, i.e. move due North or South. For example, at 80deg North, he is standing upright with his belt on the horizon. At 80deg South only the bottom half of his body is visible, with his legs sticking up in the air.

This is easily explained on the RE hypothesis. How can we devise an FE theory consistent with the observations. Some questions

1. Is the astronomical software correct? I.e. are the actual observations consistent with what the software imples?

2. Assuming it is, do the stars lie in a flat plane above the earth, or at different distances from the earth?

3. Do any of them lie beneath the earth at any time? This could easily be verified by observations at the same time at different time zones. (Note there can be no observers living below the flat surface of the earth).

4. Is there any observable stellar parallax? Standard astronomy says that none is apparent without accurate instrumentation. If so, the stars must either be a very long way away, or they lie in a plane, parallel to the surface of the earth.

5. If in a plane, how do we explain the Orion phenomenon? There was a similar phenomenon noted here about apparent moon rotation, which FE explains as the result of the bottom of the moon only being visible. Clearly if all the stars in Orion lie in a plane, we need to explain how the top half of Orion is visible only in the Northern latitudes, with the bottom half only visible in the Southern latitudes. We need a very complicated theory of perspective or light bending to explain this, but I am working on it.

[Tom Bishop]

Clearly if all the stars in Orion lie in a plane, we need to explain how the top half of Orion is visible only in the Northern latitudes, with the bottom half only visible in the Southern latitudes.

I am not sure what you mean. We can go to 5 degrees south of the equator and see both northern and southern parts of Orion.

[edby]

Clearly if all the stars in Orion lie in a plane, we need to explain how the top half of Orion is visible only in the Northern latitudes, with the bottom half only visible in the Southern latitudes.

I am not sure what you mean. We can go to 5 degrees south of the equator and see both northern and southern parts of Orion.

For complete clarity, let's change that to:

"In the far Northern latitudes only the top half of Orion is visible, in the far Southern latitudes, only the bottom half is visible".

In between, it appears to rotate around.

Would you agree with that?

And if you do, how would this be consistent with all the stars lying in the same plane above the flat earth, if that were the case?

[edby]

This is what I mean (below).

From 90deg N, 45, 0 45S, 90S

You see him rotating around, and important to note that the angular distance between all the stars remains the same. If they were all lying on the same plane, that is truly difficult to model.

From a Zetetic position, i.e. what it looks like, it looks to me as though the stars are fixed in position on a large sphere, with one hemisphere above us, the other below. That's what it looks like, at least. Possibly the reality is different, but then you would need a complex theory to explain it.

[LoveScience]

I am not sure what you mean. We can go to 5 degrees south of the equator and see both northern and southern parts of Orion.

Of course you can see both the northern and southern parts of Orion from 5d south of the equator. The star Mintaka (eastern most star in Orions belt) lies on the celestial equator. No ifs, no buts. That is a fact. Its actual declination is -00d 17m 56s. For an observer located on the Earths equator Mintaka will pass directly overhead (zenith point). For an observer 5d south of the equator Mintaka will pass 5d (10 Moon diameters) to the observers north. This can be verified by anyone located either on the equator or 5d south of it.

From the south pole however only the southern half of Orion will ever be visible just as at the north pole only the northern half of Orion will ever be visible.  That's a fact.