I work nightshift in the lower half of Australia and am wondering, how is it possible to see the Southern Cross rotate as if on an axis to the south of it. Shouldn't it fly across the sky in FE theory?
I almost became a believer until this little riddle.
I live near Brisbane, at about 27°S latitude, and if I look south on a clear night the looks a bit like the hour hand of a huge 24 hr clock, appearing to rotate clockwise at about 15°/hr.
I'll leave it to you to solve "this little riddle".
What evidence do you have of 15 degrees per hour? Round Earth Theory's special pleading says that the observations of stars slowing as they approach the horizon is "refraction".
There is no "special pleading". Refraction affecting astronomical measurements has been known for many centuries.
Perhaps the first to make detailed measurements was the great astronomer (and geocentrist) Tycho Brahe.
But in my short post, I made no claim any precise 15°/hr. All I said was "appearing to rotate clockwise at about 15°/hr".
Certainly, there is refraction near the horizon but the important point is by how much? This is of great importance to astronomers and surveyors and here is the typical astronomical refraction as it varies with altitude:(http://jgiesen.de/refract/img/refract.gif)
From the Atmospheric Refraction Applet (http://jgiesen.de/refract/index.html)
And this article has a little on the distortion it can cause on the sun's shape Atmospheric Optics, Optics Picture of the Day (http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz609.htm).
So there is atmospheric refraction but too little to be noticeable to the unaided eye except within a few degrees of the horizon and stars are rarely visible that low anyway.
Mick West's lines get nearly twice as close to each other than the top of the screen. Hardly insignificant.
But only when quite close to the horizon and fitting well with the graph I showed of typical astronomical refraction in:(http://jgiesen.de/refract/img/refract.gif)
From the Atmospheric Refraction Applet (http://jgiesen.de/refract/index.html)
"Well-known" != Proven.
No, "Well-known" as in known, studied and measured for centuries as in Observations on Atmospherical Refraction As It Affects Astronomical Observations, Author: S. Groombridge (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/107219.pdf)
What you have presented is a hypothesis. It is this hypothesis which prevents a pure Round Earth model from being confirmed. We are treated with one hypothesis and explanation after the next.
No, it is no such thing. Where possible astronomical observations are made within a few tens of degrees of the zenith.
It does not really matter if someone can create an equation which describes stars slowing down as they approach the horizon; such knowledge is not satisfactory knowledge at all, and does nothing to provide verification for this alleged mechanism.
But in all the cases we are looking at deviations far smaller than any difference between the Globe and any flat-earth predictions.
So, until you can come up with a model that better matches observations I think we'd better stick the model that does fit almost precisely.
Why throw out the model that is very close to observed reality for one known to fail entirely to match what we can see and measure?
I almost became a Flat Earthers until I realized I couldnt see Polaris from Perth....solve that riddle.
Just for interest here's a video showing simple time-lapse and star-trails looking south from NSW, Australia:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRlsu2ewv6s
Southern Skies - Star Trails. Callala Bay, NSW, Australia, Old DracO
It starts with the Southern Cross, Crux at about the 2 O'clock position an it can be seen rotating a bit like the hour hand of a 24 Hour clock.
By 1:10 in the video it is around to about the 2 O'clock position and the video changes to a "star-trails" display.
The night sky from Perth would be similar.
The following video shows the night sky from Coonabaran, NSW, looking in all four cardinal directions. It is taken with a very wide-angle lens (almost fish-eye) so is quite distorted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huysYcz-AiQ
The Moving Stars of the Southern Hemisphere, AmazingSky