Solar Parallax

Hold up a finger about an arm's length in front of your nose. Look past the finger at the background - first with one eye and then the other. The finger seems to move. This apparent shift in position is known as parallax. If you know the distance between the sighting points (~ 2 3/4 inches between your pupils), parallax is an accurate way of measuring distances with angles. Astronomers can use the spinning earth or widely separated observation points to increase the distance "between the eyes" and thereby increase the parallax.

The earliest societies could not measure parallax because portable, standard-sized degrees were unknown. They believed in close planet encounters and a shattered planet. The Bible mentions a close passage in Judges 5:20. The Bible also refers four times to a planet shattering using language similar to the Canaanite accounts (Job 9:13, Job 26:12, Psalm 89:10, Isaiah 51:9). This suggests that planet orbits have changed appreciably during historical times.

The Greeks were the first to measure astronomical parallax. Claudius Ptolemy wrote that astronomers can only measure distances with parallax. Twenty-three hundred years ago, Aristarchus of Samos taught that the earth revolves around the Sun in an oblique circle - as it rotates on its axis. He wrote a book, which survives, On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon. He reasoned that when the moon was bisected by shadow, the shadow forms a 90° angle between the observer and the Sun. Aristarchus did not explain how he determined when the moon was bisected by shadow. However, he argued with geometry that the errors were minimal. Aristarchus was probably familiar with the methods of the Babylonian astronomer Kidinnu. Alexander had the Babylonian astronomy texts translated into Greek when Aristarchus was a youth. The philosophers quickly absorbed the Babylonian methods. Kidinnu invented System B for adjusting the daily speed changes of the Sun and Moon against the background stars. He also calculated the average length of a month as 29 days + 191 time degrees + 1/72nd of a time degree. Aristarchus could have used Kidinnu's system to determine when the moon was at first quarter, timed from the middle of a lunar eclipse. Aristarchus calculated the Sun's distance as more than 18 times and less than 20 times the distance to the moon - about 1273 earth radii.

Aristarchuss' parallax

A century later, Hipparchus wrote of a total solar eclipse at Hellespont that was 4/5th eclipsed at Alexandria. He used this to calculate that the lunar distance was between 62 and 72 + 2/3 earth radii. He was careful to use ranges rather than precise distances. He calculated the solar distance as greater than 490 earth radii.

Three hundred years after Hipparchus, Claudius Ptolemy described his four cubit (2 meter) parallax instrument. He explained how he measured the moon's parallax and calculated its distance. Using the lunar parallax, the angular diameters of the Sun and Moon and the diameter of the Earth's shadow, he calculated that the Sun was 1210 earth radii distant. Today the Sun's distance is about ~23,000 earth radii. Ptolemy also measured the moon as 31' 20" when it was farthest from earth. This is about two minutes larger than its smallest diameter today. Ptolemy wrote that his diameters were "considerably smaller" than those of his predecessors.

Object	Ptolemy / Sun	Ptolemy's angle	Today's angle	Today's Brightness
Sun	1/1 ratio	31' 20"	~32' 42"	-26.7
Mercury	1/15th of Sun	2'	13"	-1.9
Venus	1/10th of Sun	3'	1.1'	-4.6
Mars	1/20 of Sun	2'	24.7"	-2.91
Jupiter	1/12 of Sun	2.6'	50.1"	-2.94

Someone could argue, "We cannot see a planet's disk with our naked eyes. Ptolemy just estimated the diameters using a planet's brightness." Yet he estimated Mars and Saturn as having almost the same angular size, although Saturn is dimmer than Mars at opposition. (At opposition, the Earth is between the planet and the Sun). Ptolemy's planet sizes are three to five times their present diameters. He assigned a Mercury diameter nine times its modern size.

Four hundred fifty years ago, Copernicus brought back Aristarchus's idea that planet orbit the Sun. In Ptolemy's system, Mars should never be closer than the Sun. In Copernicus's system, Mars approaches Earth at opposition. Measuring the Martian parallax was one way to test between the two systems. After much measuring, Tycho Brahe came to believe that the Martian parallax was greater than the Sun's, therefore Ptolemy was wrong. Kepler used Tycho's observations to show that the planets orbit the Sun in ellipses. With Kepler's laws, astronomers calculated the ratios of planet distances to the Sun's distance, but they did not know the solar distance.

Mars simultaneous parallax

Astronomers can determine the Sun's distance by measuring the Martian parallax. In October 1672 Mars occulted Psi Aquarius while at opposition. Giovanni Cassini sent Jean Richer to South America to measure the background stars during the occultation. Cassini measured the same stars from Paris. Their simultaneous parallax was 25" of arc. On October 6, 1672, John Flamsteed used a micrometer eyepiece to measure the diurnal parallax at just under 25". Mars was at a turnaround point so it was almost stationary relative to earth. Flamsteed calculated the maximum solar parallax as 10" or 81.7 millions miles. Cassini calculated 9.5" for a solar distance of 86 million miles. Their parallax measurements resulted in a solar distance 6 to 7% smaller than today's accepted value. Astronomers continued to measure the solar parallax during the next three centuries.

Astronomer	Parallax Date	Type	Solar Parallax	AU million miles
Flamsteed	1672	Mars Diurnal	10" -	81.7
Cassini	1672	Mars Occultation	9.5"	86
LaLonde	1769	Venus Transit	8.85 to 8.63"	94.7
Pingre	1769	Venus Transit	8.80"	92.885
Enke	1874	Transits Venus	8.55776"	95.250
Hall	1865	Mars Meridian	8.842"
Todd	1874	Venus Transit	8.883"
Obrecht	1874	Venus Transit	8.881
Proctor	1882	Venus Transit	8.880"	92.558
Harkness	1882	Venus Transit	8.809"	92.797
Newcomb	1892	Aberration Sunlight	8.79 - 8.80'	using clocks
Jones	1941	Eros opposition	8.79"
	1976	Radar	8.794148"	92.955859
Many astronomers	June 2004	41 parallax measurements Venus transit	mean of parallax measurements 8.538"	95.740

Harold Spencer Jones calculated a solar parallax of 8.79" from the 1931 Eros opposition. Eros has an elliptical orbit that occasionally passes earth at one tenth the distance to the sun. During the 1970's, astronomers arrived at a "final" solar parallax using radar reflections from the solid planets. Yet the optical parallax keeps on decreasing. A California observatory measured the Martian parallax during the 2003 opposition. They arrived at an AU centered on 94.2 million miles. If two observers use CCD cameras tracking on the sun during a Venus transit, they can combine their images and measure the parallax directly from the photo. The 2004 Venus transit, measured by many astronomers, resulted in a mean value of the AU considerably larger than the radar value.

Before angular ways of measuring, every society had stories about planets occasionally growing into giants. Every nation told stories about a shattered planet. Even if we only accept telescopic measurements, generations of astronomers kept on measuring an expanding solar system. Why do scientists discount the ancient accounts and measurements and trust their clocks (radar)? The Bible may have the answer. Peter predicted that in the last days false teachers will come saying, "since the fathers fell asleep (Greek metaphor for death) panta outôs diamenei - all things remain the same in being." The scientific system was built on Aristotle's assumption that the properties of matter are not emergent, not changing in being. Peter explained that they will use this idea to ignore that the heavens are ekpalai. Ek means to come out. Palai has to do with ancient turnings, long ago orbits. Did the stars come out long ago?

Our universe is so vast and the space between galaxy clusters is so great that we can see the past back to the creation era. Of the hundreds of billions of distant galaxies, none gleam with the light of local atoms. Yet scientists assume that atoms do not naturally change with age. They must assume this since scientific measuring and mathematics was built on the assumption that the properties of matter are not emergent. Consequently, they explain ancient light with speculations about vacuous processes at work. They are convinced that all light frequencies are adjusted by their passage through the vacuum. The scientific universe is 99% invisible, filled with phantom matter and vacuous processes to protect their assumption that matter does not change as it ages.

Portion of Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Here is a tiny portion of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Galaxy #3180, lower left corner, has two arms of equally spaced star clusters. Its light shines at half the frequencies of local atoms. In the upper right, #3031 has two arms made of equally spaced clumps that have rotated around less than one turn. The light from this galaxy clocks four tenths the frequencies of similar local atoms. The light from the long chain galaxy, #3178 left center, clocks 90% of the light frequencies of local atoms. The short blue chain galaxy, #3306 - top center, has four equally spaced beads - like a necklace. Its light clocks six tenths the frequencies of similar local atoms.

When we compare countless spiral galaxies at many ranges, we see that they grew as the stars accelerated outward, expanding as they followed each other out in lanes. Galaxies cannot grow into huge growth spirals unless the first principle of science is false. Matter's inertial properties, quantum frequencies and the space it takes up all visibly change as galaxies expand in the opposite direction of the laws of gravity. This is visible confirmation of biblical physics and biblical cosmic history. Paul wrote that the creation is in bondage to phthora - fundamental change. In Genesis, the setting of the stars in the heavenly raqiya (the pounded out spreading out place) is an incomplete action. Isaiah quotes God as calling the stars to come out in unbroken continuity. Countless clocks, atomic and orbital, in billions of galaxies are visibly accelerating as galaxies spread out in unbroken continuity.

Scientists, however, use their assumption to define symbolical clock-time and mass. If matter is changing itself, the scientific units and "constants" would track with the changing matter. We can test, in the solar system, whether the properties of matter are continually changing. Angles are the only form of measuring that is indifferent to the scientific assumption. If matter is changing itself, orbits would optically spiral out, but clocks derived values would remain invariant. Why? Seconds are operationally defined as the primary scientific unit using the assumption that matter is not changing itself. However, all distant atomic clocks are visibly accelerating their frequencies.

I predict that the January 2012 Eros opposition and the June 2012 Venus transit will continue to show a larger Sun distance, smaller parallax, than radar or previous measurements.

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Last modified on October 23, 2008