From: Subject: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY? Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:39:01 +0300 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="windows-1255" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://localhost:8780/pubs/journals/pensee/ivr05/19missed.htm X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 A MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

A MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

Immanuel Velikovsky

In response to a general request for an article by the = editors=20 of the New York Times, Velikovsky submitted the following = observations=20 on July 25, 1973:

On the day of the sun's total eclipse, the Skylab was without = occupants. The=20 first team departed earlier, the second team did not arrive until weeks = after=20 the eclipse. One of the great opportunities was lost for science. It = appears=20 that not even automatic pictures were taken.

In advance of that day, the last in June, teams of scientists arrived = in=20 Africa to photograph the eclipse. Over 50 years had passed since the = full solar=20 eclipse of 1919 was photographed from the isle Principe on the western = coast of=20 Africa by an expedition headed by Eddington, with another group going to = Brazil.=20 Despite poor visibility over Principe--the eclipse was partly covered by = clouds--Eddington found the sought-for result and thus confirmed = Einstein's=20 General Theory of Relativity and created a stir in all the civilized = world. But=20 soon questions were asked, the results were placed in doubt and since = then every=20 total solar eclipse was sought out by new expeditions, new photographs, = and new=20 checking. An unequivocal result was eluding the scientific world. The = present=20 expedition to Africa will not supply it either.

According to the General Theory of Relativity a beam of light from a = fixed=20 star is deflected slightly from its rectilinear path when passing near a = massive=20 body. The massive body, suggested by Einstein, is the sun. Jupiter's = mass, a=20 thousand times smaller than the solar mass, would produce a deflection = too small=20 for precise measurement. During a total solar eclipse the star light is = visible.=20 Photographs are made of the eclipsed sun together with the optically = nearby=20 stars. Then the photographs

are compared with the relative position of the same stars during the = night;=20 sometimes the expedition even prefers to return half a year later to = make night=20 pictures of the same stars.

The ray of a star that grazes the sun on its way to the earth must be = deflected by 1.7 seconds of arc, a very small angle, if the General = Theory of=20 Relativity is true, but only half so much if the Newtonian corpuscular = nature of=20 light is right and the General Theory of Relativity is not true. At any = distance=20 farther away from the rim of the sun, the bending of a ray of light = would be=20 less pronounced. Thus the experimenter works on very small angles trying = to=20 determine whether the star changed its optical position. One tenth of a = second=20 of arc, for instance, is an angle sustained by a silver dollar placed on = its rim=20 on the Empire State Building and looked at from Princeton, N.J., 50 = miles away.=20 Therefore any chance of a mistake or of interference of natural elements = may=20 doom the experiment to failure; and photography from the ground has = several=20 unavoidable interferences that must leave any obtained result in = doubt.

In the first place, in an eclipse, besides the sun the moon is a=20 participating body; each of them pulls the atmosphere: the created tide = must act=20 as a lens distorting the passage of a ray when approaching the Earth. = For some=20 unexplainable reason this phenomenon, to my knowledge, was never = discussed in=20 the evaluation of the results of the tests.

In the space above the Skylab there is no atmosphere. The column of = cold air=20 over the telescope during an eclipse with a different refraction index = is also=20 missing in space. Actually in a few successive passages of Skylab, only = hours=20 apart, new photographs, if taken, would have revealed whether Einstein = was=20 right. The sky seen from Skylab is black and stars are seen.

If, indeed, the result would confirm Einstein's expectation, then = still=20 another test would be desirable--namely, to see whether the planet = Jupiter=20 which, as already said, is one thousand times less massive than the sun, = performs an unexpectedly strong bending effect on the passing star = light. If=20 this would be the case, it would point not to gravitation but to a = powerful=20 electromagnetic field of this planet

as the cause of bending. It is not known and, to my knowledge it was = not=20 experimented to find out, whether a strong electromagnetic field = deflects a beam=20 of light in a laboratory. In view of the great distance that the light = after=20 grazing Jupiter has to pass to reach the observer (in the order of five = hundred=20 million miles)--and thus a possible bending becoming so much = "enlarged"--a=20 Skylab experiment has all the advantage against a laboratory = experiment.

In such an observation different effects, if any, should be expected = from the=20 star's light passing close to the magnetic equator of Jupiter or close = to its=20 magnetic poles. This experiment of photographing Jupiter and the grazing = light=20 of a star was devised by me quite a few years ago; it still can be = performed by=20 one of the new Skylab teams. The answer may perchance make the missing = of an=20 experiment with the eclipsed sun less painful.

However, quite possibly it will not be necessary to wait for another = fitting=20 solar total eclipse (which event will not come to pass for quite a long = time) to=20 experiment. With the help of a coronograph--a metal disk covering in a = telescope=20 the bright disk of the sun--the team that now reaches the Skylab could = try to=20 establish whether the sun deflects the star light. The sun, too, has a = magnetic=20 field and the sun spots are strong magnets, but if it is the mass = that=20 deflects light, the sun must produce a much stronger effect than = Jupiter.

I imagine that future scientific expeditions to remote places to = observe=20 solar eclipses will consist mainly of zoologists, anthropologists, and=20 psychologists to register the behavior of animals and of primitive man, = in order=20 to learn of the vestiges of racial experiences and responses to them = carried=20 over from the remote past. The astronomical observations will be made = not from=20 jungles or deserts, but from space stations.

PENSEE Journal V

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