I'm looking to see if the astonomers' method of color differencing was ever applied to the stars near the Sun during a total solar eclipse, for example, to demonstrate Einsteinian relativity visually as proof of concept, though perhaps not useful for rigorous measurement. For example, a close-up of stars photographed during the eclipse being filtered blue and an identical image photographed not during an eclipse in which the Sun is blotted out using an opaque circular area held between the camera and the sun, the second image being filtered in yellow, and the two combined. That would, I think, cause even tiny deflections in the apparent positions of stars to be visually obvious, the effect becoming more pronounced with nearness to the Sun, stars displaying yellow and blue fringes bordering green stars. Might have been a good way to get the public excited in the era when general relativity was still unproven and unknown by most.
8
-
1$\begingroup$ "which the Sun is blotted out using an opaque circular area held between the camera and the sun, " this doesn't work. $\endgroup$– ProfRobCommented Apr 12 at 19:20
-
$\begingroup$ Why would it not? $\endgroup$– user1621287Commented Apr 13 at 0:37
-
$\begingroup$ Might need a collimator too? $\endgroup$– user1621287Commented Apr 13 at 13:48
-
1$\begingroup$ @user1621287 Use your hand to blot out the Sun. Can you see any stars? $\endgroup$– Peter ErwinCommented Apr 14 at 17:16
-
1$\begingroup$ What would make more sense would be to compare your photograph of the stars near the Sun during the eclipse with a photograph of the same field of stars ~ six months later, when it's night. Of course, to demonstrate GR, you'd have to actually measure the deflection of stars near the Sun (during the eclipse), since there was a non-GR prediction that had half the effect. $\endgroup$– Peter ErwinCommented Apr 14 at 17:19
|
Show 3 more comments