Friday 12 May 2017

Flat Earth Debunked: Southern Celestial Pole

Ah yes, the flat earthers nightmare.


The debate finisher.


The final point.


The one, the only… Southern Celestial Pole!


If you ever want to get a debate with a flat earther over easily, just mention these three words to them, grab a bag of popcorn, and enjoy as the flat earthers DESPERATELY try to make up random ad-hoc excuses to the existence of the southern celestial Pole on a flat earth.


For those of you unfamiliar with the flat earth model, the model describes an Azimuthal Equidistant Projection map with either a flat plane or “dome” sprinkled with the stars we see which rotates above the earth at the same speed as the sun spotlight spins above the flat earth, like this:



Now we spot a problem right away: If the stars rotate around polaris which is in the center of the dome above the north pole, where is the southern celestial pole?


On a spherical earth, in reality, we don’t have just one celestial pole… we actually have two.


Here where I live in the southern hemisphere, I see the stars rotate clockwise around a single point when I look south.


Meanwhile, an observer in the northern hemisphere will see DIFFERENT stars spin counter-clockwise around a single point when they look North.


How can the southern celestial pole exist on a flat earth when there’s only supposed to be ONE celestial pole on their model? In short, it doesn’t work.


Let’s do an an experiment using Stellarium: Imagine an observer at 0 degrees Latitude and 0 degrees longitude, Located just south off the coast of Ghana in western Africa.


Observer:
Latitude: N 0° 0’ 0.00’’
Longitude: W 0° 0’ 0.00’’


When the observer looks North, they will see the Northern celestial pole with the stars rotating counter clockwise right on the horizon.

When the observer looks South, they will see the Southern celestial pole again with the stars rotating clockwise right on the horizon.


When the observer looks west, they will see stars go down and then under the horizon,


And when they look east, they will see stars come up and into view above the horizon.

Flat earthers will be quick to point out that “Oh that’s just a simulation with a ball earth bias!”


No. It’s a simulation with a reality bias. Many astronomers use stellarium to predict when planets and particular constellations will appear in the sky, and it’s entirely consistent with a round earth with two celestial poles, and NOT the flat earth with only one celestial pole.


Also, if one is on the south pole they will see the southern celestial pole directly overhead. Meanwhile, I see the southern celestial pole a little bit above the horizon when I look south because I am at a different latitude to the south pole


Let’s take it a little bit further. On the northern hemisphere, let’s imagine two observers on the Tropic of cancer looking north.


Observer 1:
Latitude: N 23° 26’ 13.30’’
Longitude: W 100° 0’ 0.00’’
Looking North


Observer 2:
Latitude: N 23° 26’ 13.30’’
Longitude: E 26° 0’ 0.00’’
Looking North

Looking at these two images, these two observers are at the same latitude but different longitudes and you will see that the little bear's tail has now been moved on the left instead of the right for the second observer compared to the first observer. The only difference is a rotational difference, and of course this is perfectly explained on a round earth and flat earth because both observers are looking in the same converging point.


However, let’s do the same on the tropic of capricorn now in the southern hemisphere.


Observer 3:
Latitude: S 23° 26’ 13.30’’
Longitude: W 100° 0’ 0.00’’
Looking South


Observer 4:
Latitude: S 23° 26’ 13.30’’
Longitude: E 26° 0’ 0.00’’
Looking South


Same as the northern hemisphere, except the Chameleon has moved clockwise around the celestial pole instead of counterclockwise.


Now let’s see where these observers are looking on the flat earth.

Hmm, yes we have a problem.


Observers 1 and 2 make sense because they are looking in the same direction and are seeing the same stars with only a rotational difference… but observers 3 and 4 are looking in COMPLETELY different directions and are seeing the same stars with only a rotational difference.


On a round earth, this is perfectly explained because observers 3 and 4 are looking at a single point; the south pole and yet on a flat earth they will be looking in different directions and be seeing the same stars with only a rotational difference.


Busted.

No comments:

Post a Comment