NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: An exotic lunar distance puzzle
From: Marcel Tschudin
Date: 2011 May 4, 01:20 +0300
From: Marcel Tschudin
Date: 2011 May 4, 01:20 +0300
"There is no opposite sign."
I should have added before because the light ray is in both cases the same. The light ray has the same direction of bending as the earth's surface but with a larger radius. An opposite sign for refraction of the horizon as seen from the space shuttle would mean that the bending of the ray curvature would be opposite to that of the earth's surface. It would further mean that the space shuttle would see the observer at the horizon through different air layers than the observer standing at the horizon would see the space shuttle. If one ray would be obstructed by a cloud and the other ray not would further mean that one observer could see the other but the other one not. That is contrary to our experience.
Marcel
I should have added before because the light ray is in both cases the same. The light ray has the same direction of bending as the earth's surface but with a larger radius. An opposite sign for refraction of the horizon as seen from the space shuttle would mean that the bending of the ray curvature would be opposite to that of the earth's surface. It would further mean that the space shuttle would see the observer at the horizon through different air layers than the observer standing at the horizon would see the space shuttle. If one ray would be obstructed by a cloud and the other ray not would further mean that one observer could see the other but the other one not. That is contrary to our experience.
Marcel