Vinnie

Vinnie: "Seriously, since there isn't much of a backdrop and space is so damn big, the sun would already appear to be stationary. But in actuality the sun orbits arround the milky way at an alarming velocity."

Vinnie

malookiemaloo

So whispers has told me.

That's what I like about the Sec. web, you learn something new every day.


M

Tenek

That's the problem, there is no 'fixed point in space' - pick a frame of reference, anything not based on the Sun itself will be moving with regards to it.

The Sun isn't really all that still anyways. The two just happen to orbit the centre of mass - which is much, much closer to the Sun, plus it's also affected by the other planets.

Vinnie

Damn, now this is a coincidence. I was browsing through a college level physics text book that I have and it is possible for a day to be lengthened, so to speak. This comes from the fourth edition of Wilson and Buffa's College Physics, Chapter 22, Geometrical Optics: Reflection and Refraction of Light.

It would be too much of a pain to reproduce the Figure (5 pics of the sun and an anti-sun emerging) so try looking up the rarely observed phenomenon known as an "anti-sun" which results from atmospheric refraction.

"Atmospheric refraction lengthens the ay, so to speak, by allowing us to see the Sun just before it actually rises above the horizon and just before it actually sets below the horizon."

Th figure shows five images of the sun descending but another sun is emerging from the horizon and meets it, Its a refracted image.

The figure also talked about a flattened sun and this pager has a visual on that:
http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/sunflat.htm


There are also sunset mirages:
http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/sunmir.htm

here is a double sunset:
http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/sundoub.htm

And I just found the anti-sun (named different here):
http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/sunmir2.htm

That site rocks. Could something like this possibly have givien rise to a legend? Its possible but that is all we can say.

The anti-sun stuff is pretty cool. Learn somethign new every day I guess!

Vinnie