STAR DISTANCES

ZETETIC COSMOGONY:
OR
Conclusive Evidence
THAT THE WORLD IS NOT A
ROTATING—REVOLVING—GLOBE,
BUT
A STATIONARY PLANE CIRCLE.
By Thomas Winship
1899

 start here

(Post 36/47)

STAR DISTANCES.

Sir Robert Ball, in his inimitable fairy tale already referred to (entitled the "Story of the Heavens"), says that:

"We now know the distances of a few of the stars, perhaps 20 or 30, with more or less accuracy, but of the distances of the great majority we are still ignorant. . . . . . The observations for the determination of stellar parallax are founded on the familiar truth that the earth revolves around the sun."

The statement, that "we now know the distances" is unconditionally false. They do not know any one distance. Neither can they know, because the speculation is founded on a myth—the earth's supposed revolution round the sun, which I have shown to be impossible. But let us proceed, and see with what marvellous "accuracy" the distances are known.

On pages 414 to 421 of the work referred to, we find that:

"Bessel concluded that the distance (61 Cygni) was about 60 billion miles. Struve thought it could not be more than 40 billions of miles."

A little difference of 20,000,000,000 miles. How very accurate to be sure.

Sir Robert then calmly informs us that:

"We shall presently show that we believe Struve was right, yet it does not necessarily follow that Bessel was wrong."

What splendid logic, and what marvellous reasoning faculties! He then continues:

"As the distance of 61 Cygni is 40 billion miles."

So that after all the putting forth of mighty intellectual power it seems that Bessel was wrong, because Sir Robert says that the star is 40 billion miles away, which is the distance given by Struve. And then follows an audacious statement:

"By the aid of our KNOWLEDGE OF STAR DISTANCES, combined with an assumed velocity of 30 miles per second, we can make the attempt to peer back into the remote past."

No, Sir Robert, you have not yet shown that you know the slightest of the present in your own profession, so we cannot take you as a guide to enable us to "peer back" into the past.

But how are star distances measured? Mr. Laing shall tell us. In his "Modern Science and Modern Thought," page 8, he says:

"The distance of the earth from the sun being 93 million miles, and its orbit an ellipse nearly circular; it follows that in mid-winter, in round numbers, it is 186 million miles distant from the spot where it was at mid-summer."

This is all supposition, which I have already shown does not contain a word of truth, and consequently whatever is built upon this foundation is worthless. Now it is evident to every thinking man that if the earth has travelled such an enormous distance in an ellipse so as to make the base line 186 million miles, all the stars will necessarily have altered in relative position, so that the matter can be easily tested. Now, what says Mr. Laing?

"What difference in the bearing of the fixed stars is caused by traversing this enormous base? The answer is, in the immense majority of cases NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL."

In the time of Tycho Brahe it was said that the earth revolved around the sun, but he argued that if the earth revolved around the sun, the relative position of the stars would change very much, and the matter must, in the nature of the case, be easily detected. Accordingly, experiments were tried at intervals of six months, and the result showed that the stars were in exactly the same position as they had occupied six months before, thus proving that the earth does not move at all. The "explanation" Mr. Laing gives is nullified by his own further statement. He tells us that:

"Their distance is so vastly greater than 186 million miles, that a change of basis to this extent makes no change perceptible to the most refined instruments in their bearings as seen from the earth."

The distance of the stars is an absolutely unknown quantity to the gentlemen of the observatories, as I have shown, so that this flimsy argument amounts to nothing. Besides this, the movement of the earth, if such ever took place, would be easily detected. But that such has never been observed, and that the relative position of the stars has not changed, proves that the earth is a fixture.

Mr. Laing goes on to refute his own statement of the case by stating that:

"The perfection of modern instruments is such that A CHANGE OF EVEN ONE SECOND, OR ONE-THREE-THOUSAND-SIX-HUNDREDTH PART OF ONE DEGREE, in the annual parallax, as it is called, of any fixed star, WOULD CERTAINLY BE DETECTED."

By the most powerful and finely adjusted of modern instruments no change has ever been observed, so that Mr. Laing's laboured statement must be relegated to the limbo of conjectural absurdity.

Mr. Laing's case against the Bible would be the most telling that could be made out, if his statements were within a million miles of the truth, but they are absolutely without the slightest foundation and must be thrown into the "scientific" waste-paper basket.

Another writer who uses his not inconsiderable ability in the same direction is Dr. Draper, author of a work I have already quoted from, "The History of the Conflict between Religion and Science." On the subject of star distances, he says, page 156:

"Considering that the movement of the earth does not sensibly affect the apparent position of the stars, he (Aristarchus) inferred that they are incomparably more distant from us than the sun . . . . He saw that the earth is of absolutely insignificant size when compared with the stellar universe. He saw too, that there is nothing above us but space and stars."

What a marvellous vision this man must have had! Had it only been stated what Planet this adventurer chartered to take his trip "above us" to see what there was there, the fairy tale would have been complete.

~ ~ ~

EXHAUST THRUST COLUMN

The atmosphere is too thin beyond 10 to 15 miles up. In 1921, the New York Times ridiculed the idea that rockets don't push-off-of-air. Rockets and jet planes both push-off-of-air; rockets use the expanding gases of combustion directly through a nozzle and jet planes use combustion to turn turbines to compress air and blow it out the back of the engine.

Science Fiction.

bob question from YouTube:

"Newton was not thinking about rockets in space when he came up with the third law. 14.7 psi doesn't sound much, but when you realise that it equates to one metric tonne per square foot, or 2116 pounds per square foot, you suddenly realise that we are actually under an immense pressure. If an elephant stood on you, you would be under less pressure. The elephant messes you up because the pressure is uneven. This air pressure is plenty to cause resistance to the expanding gasses of a rocket. We don't feel the pressure because we are pressurised and all is under equilibrium."