Expert: Tom Whiting - 8/17/2010

Question
If there hasn't been an axial shift as you assert then how do you explain the sun rising in a northeasterly direction at sunrise instead of a southeastly direction after June 21st?

Answer
Hi Terry,
I don't have to explain it. It's a normal reflex action of both our tilt and our revolution around the sun.  Happens every year. And it's only true at sub-polar latitudes. At the poles, as you know, they see the sun completely different now, either set for ~ 6 months at one end, and circling the sky at the other end.

I was out observing last night and Polaris (north star, or Alpha Ursae Minoris) was still in the same place in the sky, and not moving with a telescope on it, (proving the Earth's axis is still pointing at it)...  showing a guest that it's a double star (as are over 50% of ALL stars) in a small telescope. (magnitudes 2.2 - 8.8, sep 19 arc- seconds, colors yellow white, blue).

{See, the real observational astronomy is far more interesting than reading "false" conspiracy messages on the computer as you are doing, so get out at night and start observing)... Oh, we also saw about 10 Perseid meteors during our 2 hour observing period, and 3 sporadic meteors, and about 30 artificial earth satellites going overhead too).  Also the Andromeda Galaxy, the Double Open Cluster in Perseus, M-34, NGC 752, Jupiter, the Pleiades (all naked-eye objects in a dark sky), and several very red carbon stars through our scopes.  Which activity sounds more interesting... and honest and trustworthy?
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA USA

FOLLOW UP:
We are a massive spinning 'gyroscope'... google gyroscope properties.
I once read that if we took all the world's nuclear weapons and exploded them at one point, say the North Pole, it would shift our axis the distance of only one atom diameter from it's current position; not even measureable, let alone catastrophic.

We would have to take a 100 mile wide asteroid hit to barely move our axis... but at that point, axial shift would be the least of the
world's problems, if that ever happened. The dinosaur impact was estimated at only 6 miles wide 62 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period, and that wiped out nearly 70% of all life forms. We probably wouldn't survive a 100 mile wide hit. At that point, no one would be around to worry about a slight axial shift of the planet.
tom

ADDITIONAL FOLLOW UP:
It is true that the Earth's axis, like all good gyroscopes, has a precessional movement, a very small circle in the sky, (while maintaining it's 23.5 degree tilt from the vertical) with a period
of nearly 26,000 years. Thuban was the 'north star' some 5000 years ago (pyramid buildings), and our closest approach to Polaris is coming up in 2105 or thereabouts. Vega will be the North star in about 13,000 years from now. BUT, that standard precessional motion wasn't what you were referring to... you seem to indicate that "something is amiss" that can be determined by naked eye in our short lifetimes. Precession is so slow and small, that it cannot be detected by the human eye in one lifetime, as it's about only one degree of angle in our sky every 70 years or so. AND precession doesn't change the 23.5 degree tilt of our axis, ONLY the direction it's pointing in space.  So yes, it is true that our "summertime" 13,000 years from now will fall in the December-January timeframe for the N. Hemisphere... (assuming we don't continuously adjust our calendar for precession)... but this is just the normal outcome of precession of our axis and a spinning gyroscope.  It's been going on that way for over 3 billion years, at probably more like 4 billion years. So it's all... normal.
Clear Skies,
Tom