Dear Neville, I look forward to reading the updated version. Jack ----- Original Message ----- From: Neville Jones To: geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 6:19 PM Subject: [geocentrism] Re: The resolution of Mars -----Original Message----- From: art@xxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:40:04 +1100 Okay, Jack. My previous posts on this subject still stand. I'll comment on a couple of the statements of Neville's that you included. Neville: Mars is not emitting visible light any more than the coin is. Regner: True. Both just reflect sunlight. BUT: Mars' surface area is some 1e17 (= 10^17 = 1 followed by 17 zeroes) times larger than a coin. The surface area of Mars' which is presented to the Sun is 1e17 times larger than for a coin. Granted the coin have a larger reflectivity (albedo) close to 1, and Mars' is about 0.15 - so that gives us a factor of 10. Also, Mars is farther from the Sun, than Earth is, so the sunlight will be diluted by the square of that factor = 2.3. To be generous I'll call those two a factor of 100 resulting in the coin still being 1e15 times dimmer than Mars. If we placed a coin next to Mars, Mars would be 1e15 brighter than the coin. Light that is emitted or reflected in all directions, will get diluted by the square of the distance. This means that if you look at a coin a meter away, glinting in the sunlight, it will be between 1e6 and 2e7 brighter than Mars, depending on the relative orbital positions of Mars and Earth. If you put the coin at between 970m and 4.7km away from you, Mars and the coin would be the same brightness - provided you catch the glint. The coin would now have an angular diameter between 0.88-4.25 arcseconds - well below the resolution limit of your eye. Another point, of course, is that you wouldn't be able to see the coin because you would have to be on the dayside of Earth to get a reflection off the coin, which means the general daylight will completely outshine the coin seen at that distance - just as we can't see Mars in the daytime sky. Agreed. I agree with everything else that Neville says, except his statement that you can't see things that are below the resolution limit. I would like to add, though, that his statement is correct in sun-lit scenarios, where the contrast between objects is much lower than between the black Universe and a star or a planet, e.g., you will be able to see (not necessarily resolve - they might just be little dots) black letters on a white background at much larger distance than yellow letters on a white background. Agreed. My example with the airplane is good, since you know the size of the lights and approximate distance to the plane. I'll estimate the lights to be about 10cm in diameter, which means that planes more than 350m away will have lights that are below the resolution limit of your eye (I have used the 1 arcminute measure that Neville also prefers - the diffraction limit of 24" is too optimistic). I hope this helps. Regner Agreed. The whole issue is resolution. This is why the article needs slight modification/correction. Neville. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Free 3D Earth Screensaver Watch the Earth right on your desktop! Check it out at www.inbox.com/earth