Precession - what is that?

How long is a sidereal year and how short is the tropical year?

In order to find out what a sidereal year is, we shall use for now the imaginary center of the Earth as a reference and not the Earth’s surface.

We can see that the Earth moves around the sun. The distant star is a reference point. A full 360° orbit around the Sun, and thus a sidereal year, is completed when the center of the Earth crosses the imaginary line Sun - star.

If the Sun and the star are fixed and the Earth does not precess, then after one complete 360° orbit of the Earth around the Sun not only a sidereal year, but also a tropical year has passed.

When in 1952 the IAU substituted the tropical year for 1900.0 for the sidereal year for 1900.0, its decision must have been based on this fact.

We know that the fixed stars (or the signs of the Zodiac) slowly change their position in the sky at a rate of about 50.26” per year. That again is proof that precession must occur. This phenomenon, as we see it here, is due to variations in the orientation of Earth’s axis in space.

There are two possibilities to explain this phenomenon: either the Earth wobbles on its axis (lunisolar precession) or our solar system has a partner star and revolves around a common center of gravity.

In case of the latter, all stars with the exception of the partner star precess at about 50.26" per year. This corresponds to approximately 3.35 time second (50.26 ÷ 15 = 3.35) per year. That means the sidereal year is about 3.35 s longer than the tropical year.

It is easy to see that once the center of the Earth has crossed the imaginary line between the Sun and the fixed star the tropical year is completed and the observer on the rotating Earth's surface must wait another 3.35 seconds for the precessed reference star to transit. If the Earth were to wobble on its axis, the reference star has not just precessed by 3.35 seconds but by about 1223 seconds or approx. 20 minutes – that is a huge difference.

Let us take a closer look at this discrepancy.

A full lunisolar precession cycle of approximately 25800 years would look something like this.

Isaac Newton, who coined the term lunisolar precession, was convinced that only our Moon has the necessary mass and the right distance from the Earth to cause this phenomenon. He was a genius. But during his time there were insufficient scientific means to either confirm or refute his hypothesis.

Despite the inconsistencies of the theory and reasonable doubts by some experts, modern science continues to hold on to the lunisolar precession model.

Here we see the orientation of the Earth's axis relative to the Sun during the winter solstice on December 21st. According to lunisolar precession theory, after a quarter precession cycle or about 6450 years the axis of the Earth would be aligned like this.

Now, one might ask, what is so unusual about this? That is the way precession works. But wait - it will get interesting.

What has changed after 6450 years of precession?

What has certainly not changed is the 360° orbit period of the Earth around the Sun. With each tropical year the imaginary center of the Earth continues to cross the imaginary line between the fixed star and the Sun.

There are only two positions that have changed relative to the Sun and the fixed stars. The first is that the observer on the surface of the rotating Earth must wait about 6 hours for the sun and the fixed star to transit.

In the second position the fixed stars have moved about 23.5° lower in the sky for the observers on the night side and the Sun has moved about 23.5° higher for the observer on the dayside of the Earth.

Of particular interest to us is the position of the Sun, because it is 23.5° higher in the sky than it should be. As we know, our civil calendar is tied to the equinoxes and therefore in synch with the 360° orbit of the Earth around the Sun.

This revolution period is very precise, as it has remained stable to within a millionth of a second over the last century. Thus after 6450 360° orbits of the Earth around the Sun, the axis of the Earth should have remained in its original position and not shifted by 90° to the right.

After 6450 years - if lunisolar precession were to occur - the observer on the northern hemisphere would experience the following paradoxical phenomenon. He looks out the window and feels the spring in full bloom. A glance at the calendar tells him that it is the 21st of December.

Ever since the calendar reform of 1582, calendar time has been kept accurate to a millionth of a second. If lunisolar precession were to exist, then after roughly 420 years our calendar should have been off by six days. But that is not the case. For sure, we would have noticed otherwise.

Something is wrong. It is unacceptable that the Earth precesses relative to the stars but not relative to the Sun. Such a wobbly physics cannot exist. However, this is the phenomenon that is being observed. The equinoxes are fixed and the fixed stars retrograde by about 50.26" per year.

There is only one logical and scientific conclusion to explain this observation - our solar system revolves around another star.

Now you may ask, why has no one noticed this extreme time discrepancy before? Simply speaking, the calendar is being kept accurate, which means it is synchronized to the Sun. The huge difference of about 20 minutes per year is transferred to the night side of the Earth, since no one is going to notice it there.

Who really cares if the fixed stars appear a few arc-seconds lower in the sky each year? And a 20 minutes longer sidereal year, which no one uses anyway in practice, exists only on paper.

Karl-H Homann

October 23rd 2007

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Addendum:

The 3 main motions of the Earth as measured by time are:

1. Earth turns on its axis relative to the Sun causing day and night.

2. The Earth with its 23.5° inclined rotational axis orbits the Sun causing a constant change of the four seasons.

3. The Earth wobbles on its axis, which produces two different scenarios:

a) The 0-Meridian remains fixed relative to inertial space, causing only the surface of the Earth to wobble back and forth

b) The O-meridian and the axis of rotation move simultaneously in the direction of precession.

By analyzing these 3 main motions of the Earth it becomes clear that only the first two can be precisely and directly measured with a clock and calendar. The third motion can not be measured, regardless of whether or not the 0-Meridian remains stationary in space – a problem by the way, which not even the experts can agree upon.

It's like the fixed arrival time of the IC train between Hamburg to Munich (e.g.) is delayed because during the trip one walks back and forth in the train and having that time being added to the actual travel time.

Exactly the same absurd logic is being applied to a 20-minute longer sidereal year.

Summary:

Those who are still convinced and continue to believe that Lunisolar Precession occurs, would have to accept - whether they like it or not - a precession cycle of just 71 years, instead of 25800 years.

Because, one precession cycle = one retrograde rotation of the Earth (and NOT a complete year of a little more than 365 retrograde Earth rotations)

An apparent motion of the fixed stars of 50.26” per year produces a precession cycle of

86400 s ÷ 3.35 s ≈ 25791 years

An apparent motion of the fixed stars of 18345” per year produces a precession cycle of

86400 s ÷ 1223 s (approximately 20 min) ≈ 71 years

And it continues...

After some heated discussions about the mysterious 1223 seconds longer sidereal year of 365.256361 mean solar days, it is finally time to say whether or not this exists in reality or in fact only on paper.

"We scientists would claim that in the absence of precession, the tropical year and the sidereal year would be equal." Prof. Douglas P. Hube, Dept. of Physics, University of Alberta

Let us imagine such a "non-precessing" Earth with the two observers on the 0-Meridian.

The one is positioned near the equator and the other near 60 degree of Latitude. After a 360° orbit of the Earth around the Sun both a tropical and a sidereal year is completed, since the reference star transits for both observers at the same time.

But what happens when the axis of the Earth precesses counterclockwise at a rate of 50.26” per year? After one year will both observers see the reference star transit 3.35 seconds later or only the observer at the equator while the other observer sees it 1223 seconds later?

Stupid question or just asked wrong? Neither nor, because with lunisolar precession these 1223 s per year have to be accounted for. It would be interesting to find out how a logical thinking astronomer imagines this to happen.

Lunisolar precession theory requires a fixed Sun and a fixed reference star. Hence, a 360° orbit of the Earth around the Sun is completed when the observer on the Earth's surface sees the reference stars transiting his instrument. Since there can only be one true 360° orbit of the Earth around the Sun (either the tropical year or the sidereal year), the lunisolar precession model assumes a tropical orbit period of less than 360°.

Precisely here lies the problem, because the next tropical period is also not a 360° orbit but like the previous about 20 minutes shorter, so that with each orbit the difference between the tropical and the sidereal period increases by 20 minutes.

We remember how after 6450 years of lunisolar precession (a quarter precession-cycle) the Sun has moved 23.5° higher, although the calendar says it hasn’t. This is a major challenge for the calendar maker, because the calendar is synchronized to the seasons and due to the 23.5° higher position of the Sun the calendar would be off by 91.31 days in those 6450 years (91.31 days x 86400s ÷ 6450 years = 1223s per year).

So how was one able to save the lunisolar precession model? There was only one thing that seemed to work: to artificially make the sidereal year 1223 second longer.

That is exactly what happened, but only symbolically and only for one sidereal year. Otherwise, in order to maintain the 20 minute distance between a sidereal- and the tropical year, the reference star would have to move together with Earth's axis through the zodiac in about 25800 years.

In the early fifties, when accurate clocks and methods of sidereal time measurement were available to precisely determine the tropical year, it became evident that a precession of the Earth cannot exist, as one believed before. Instead of accepting this truth, it was decided - for whatever reason - to obscure this knowledge by introducing the new and complicated reference-system of the vernal equinox.

The natural and dependable system of the 'sidereal-time-clock' became obsolete. New star catalogues and elaborates tables including formulas to pre-calculate the positions of stars were now available, which made the actual measurement of sidereal time unnecessary. It could not have been made any easier, especially for hobby-astronomers. Since there were no skeptics there was no suspicion that something was not right about the theory of the precession of the Earth.

However, if precession is considered to be a physical fact, then one should also be able to measure and substantiate the additional physical time interval of more than 1223 seconds per year.

(See also Beelzebub's Buried Dog)

We do not have to wait 6450 years, in order to recognize this devastating mistake. The missing 6 days since the calendar reform of 1582 are sufficient proof to invalidate the lunisolar precession model already.

In addition, the Moon and Venus time-equations provide clear evidence that the tropical year is indeed the true 360° orbit period, and that the sidereal year is at the most only 3.35 seconds (50.26”) longer.

... and finally, one more fact:

The statement by Professor Hube that in the absence of precession the tropical and the sidereal year are equal, requires further analysis.

Let’s try and find out what it ultimately means. Suppose we shrink the Sun to the size of the reference star, as it is extremely difficult to precisely determine the transit of the Sun due to its size.

After a 360° orbit of the Earth around the Sun, an observer on Earth would have counted 365.24219878 rotations of the Earth relative to the Sun. For an observer on the opposite side (night side) of the same meridian the Earth would have made 366.24219878 rotations relative to the reference star. In both cases it took a time period of exactly 31556925.9747 seconds. (see also “Beelzebub's Buried Dog”)

Now imagine the Earth precesses backward at a rate of 50.26 arc seconds per year.

As we already know, the observer on the night side sees the reference star going about 3.35 seconds later through the transit. The question is does the observer on the day side see the Sun (reduced to the size of a star) also 3.35 seconds later?

If yes, then the tropical year would have to be 3.35 s longer. If not, the meridian relative to the Sun is fixed while the same meridian moves relative to the reference stars. Such kind of “precession” is physically and mathematically impossible.

Hence, there exists only one logical explanation: The Sun is in a moving system, as it moves relative to the Earth in its 360° rotation around the Sun.

Again, it must be pointed that solar eclipses - in conjunction with the Saros cycle - only work precisely with a 360° orbit of the Earth around the Sun based on the time period of the tropical year.

The harmonious, synodic relationship between Earth and Venus and its node movement of 32.88” per year, is also synchronized only to the 360° tropical orbit period of the Earth around the Sun. It is totally absurd and ridiculous to assume that our Earth’s Moon causes this phenomenon by “preventing” the Earth from reaching its full 360° tropical orbit and by directly “influencing” the orbit of Venus. (see also “2012 & The Secret of the Venus Node Movement", and "Transits of Venus Prove That The Earth Does Not Wobble”)

Karl-Heinz Homann

see also "Axis Mundi - Die Weltenachse"