ZetaTalk: Latitude
Note: written during the April, 2002 sci.astro debates.

Why would latitude matter? Mankind is aware that the waters of the oceans mass more at the Equator than at the poles, due to centrifugal force caused by rotation. The water is pulled outward, creating a drop in pressure there relative to the water pressure at the poles, thus creating more water at the Equator when the oceans equalize their water pressure. How does this affect the viewing of the inbound Planet X, when viewing is through the atmosphere not the waters of the oceans? The atmosphere, being lighter than the oceans, likewise attempts to equalize its air pressure differences. High pressure areas push into low pressure areas, and where mountain tops have less pressure than the surface of the Earth, this is measured from the surface of the Earth, not from the dead center of the globe. The reason for this is that the atmosphere takes the surface as its low point, the point where it cannot drop further, during equalization of air pressure.

In viewing Planet X, primarily emitting light in the red spectrum, including infrared light, the bending of red light between the inbound Planet X and the viewer is affected by the following factors:

• gravitational and other influences in the solar system between Planet X and Earth, such that if the light must pass by another planet in its path it may bend toward this planet, diminishing the red light coming directly to the viewer, and thus making Planet X appear to have a lower magnitude than expected.
• the angle of viewing, such that if the red light passes over more of the Earth’s surface, it will tend to bend toward the Earth and thus will drop into the viewing scope, where otherwise would pass overhead, and thus viewing Planet X when at the horizon is more optimal than viewing it when directly overhead.
• the amount of heavy atmosphere the red light must pass through to reach the viewer, such that if Planet X is viewed while looking down past the Equator, due to the bulge there in the oceans, thus creating a thickened atmosphere with its own bending influences.

If the viewer is looking toward a horizon during viewing, it is capturing light that will be bent toward the Earth more, as it spends more time passing over the Earth than if it were an overhead view. The closer the viewer is to an overhead shot, the less time is spend passing over the Earth, and thus the less bending that occurs. If the viewer is also looking over the Equator during this sighting, the viewer is capturing light that must pass over the Equator, and thus the bending influence that heavy vs. light atmosphere have come into play. Why would this be so? Where it is assumed that the speed of light is a constant, it is hardly that in fact, but varies depending upon what it must pass through. Man measures light that passes through space, and calculates the speed of light. In these calculations, any slowing that might occur during passage through the atmosphere is insignificant, all being an educated guestimate in any case. Red light passing through thick atmosphere is slowed, by attractions toward elements in the atmosphere and thus, like the red light coming from a horizon, has more time to be drawn toward the Earth by gravity pull.

Thus, for a viewer on a high vantage point on land, looking south toward Orion from the Northern Hemisphere in the winter, the Equator must be considered in an offset, making Planet X look further south that would otherwise be the case. For a viewer in the Southern Hemisphere, no such change will occur. In giving Global Coordinates, we consider all parts of the globe, giving coordinates that will put Planet X within the scope, thus almost all viewers find some offset when they discover it.

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