102. The Pole Star approaching the horizon as you travel south can be explained by perspective

"Some heliocentrists have tried to suggest that the Pole Star’s gradual declination overhead as an observer travels southwards is proof of a globular Earth. Far from it, the declination of the Pole Star or any other object is simply a result of the Law of Perspective on plane (flat) surfaces.  The Law of Perspective dictates that the angle and height at which an object is seen diminishes the farther one recedes from the object, until at a certain point the line of sight and the seemingly uprising surface of the Earth converges to a vanishing point (i.e. the horizon line) beyond which the object is invisible. In the ball-Earth model the horizon is claimed to be the curvature of the Earth, whereas in reality, the horizon is known to be simply the vanishing line of perspective based on the strength of your eyes, instruments, weather and altitude." 

Dubay does not understand perspective

Perspective works in all directions, not just vertically

Perspective does reduce the perceived height and breadth as distance from the object increases, and Dubay uses this to state that the “height” between the Pole Star and the horizon will appear smaller and smaller as the observer travels away from the North Pole.

If Dubay understood perspective he would also realise that perspective would also reduce the perceived distance between the stars.

If perspective reduced the perceived height of the Pole Star from earth to one tenth of its previous height, it follows that the distance between the stars in view would also be cut to one tenth of their previous distance.

This would be a dramatic and easily observed effect.   It is NEVER observed.  Take a photo of the northern constellations from Minneapolis (3119 miles from the north pole) and compare it to a photo of the northern constellations from Houston (4168 miles from the north pole) and the distance between the stars will remain EXACTLY the same and the constellations will be spread across the same width of sky.


An easy enough experiment to perform.  Why not do it?  For perspective to be at play the same stars in Houston should take up about 75% less of the width/height of sky as the same stars in Minneapolis.

The Pole Star is too far above the plane to get anywhere near the horizon

Dubay imagines that the vanishing point denotes a point on the horizon.  It does not, it at theoretical point at an infinite distance.  I.e. To actually reach the vanishing point you would need to be infinitely far away.

On a flat Earth the Pole Star is not infinitely far away.  In fact it is not very far away relative to the size of the Earth, so it would ALWAYS remain noticeably above the horizon.

Let us do the calculations  to work out the angle at which it would be seen.  Flat earthers do not seem to have an agreed upon figure for the distance of the sun, moon and stars above the plane of the flat Earth,  but I did find the following on the Flat Earth Society web site.

"The distance to the sun and the celestial bodies has been in some contention over the years. In Chapter 5 of Earth Not a Globe Samuel Birley Rowbotham computes the sun to be less than 700 miles above surface of the earth, and the stars contained within 1000 miles. Later researchers have estimated the sun to be at about 3000 miles above the surface of the earth, with the stars at about 100 miles above that. However, the exact methodology of that later research in regards to how the angles were determined has been lost over time."

https://wiki.tfes.org/Distance_to_the_Sun

So this gives us a range from about 800 miles to 3,100 miles.

The radius of the Earth according to flat earthers is 12,500 miles.   The Pole Star approaches the horizon as we approach the equator, which on a flat Earth is a distance of 6,250 miles from the North Pole.  Flat earthers also accept that at the North Pole the Pole Star would be directly overhead so we can use simple trigonometry to work out the angle that it will be viewed from the equator.

Using the 800 mile figure for height we get an angle of 7.3 degrees.
Using the 3,100 mile figure for height we get an angle of 26.4 degrees.

In either case, an angle that would be clearly visible above the horizon with the naked eye.


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