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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode
And you were able to easily assert that the apparent position of the Sun lags behind its actual position by 8.3 minutes or 2.1 degrees. It should be no trouble at all for you to whip out your calculator, merrily grind away, and give an estimate of the lag between the moon's apparent position and its actual position.

The lag is a little over a second. Do you feel better now?

Now can you answer my question?

529 posted on 07/07/2008 2:48:22 PM PDT by LeGrande
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To: LeGrande; mrjesse
The lag is a little over a second.

So then, for the purposes of naked-eye astronomy, the moon is where it appears to be, or nearly so -- according to you. But the difference between the Sun's observed position and its actual position is an enormous 2.1 degrees -- again, according to you.

If you are on a planet that is revolving at 16.6 minutes per revolution and a sniper with a laser is one Au from you...

Let us stop the sniper's shot by interposing the moon. We have now learned where the moon must be -- in the LeGrandeic System -- to cause a total solar eclipse. The moon must occlude the actual sun. But while the moon is where it appears to be in the sky or nearly so, the observed sun -- the corona and photosphere -- is off by 180 degrees. Therefore during a solar eclipse on this planet, the eclipse is observed to be 180 degrees away from the observed moon -- according to you.

Let us return to the Earth. The moon is where it appears to be, but the observed Sun is 2.1 degrees away from its actual position, according to you. Therefore during a total solar eclipse, the moon must be 2.1 degrees away from the observed eclipse. But the painful astronomical fact (which I feel you will probably not face gracefully) is that this is false, as any grade-schooler knows.

There's not much use in more rambling about water-trucks, driving in the rain, skeet-shooting, or laser-sniping. As if any such arguments, no matter how convoluted or contrived, are going to make someone who isn't a lunatic believe that the moon is 2.1 degrees away from the observed Sun during a solar eclipse.

531 posted on 07/08/2008 5:18:07 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Darwinism!)
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