Re: [ATM] Large Amateur Telescope

[Thomas Miller <tommy81@comcast.net>]

What we are trying to do is measure the speed of redshifted (quasar) light.

Why?  Because there is an old version of General Relativity (de Sitter) for 
which light is both redshifted and slowed at large distances.  We think 
this version has been overlooked, and we wish to test it against the 
Standard Model.  The quasar lightspeed measurement is the best way we can 
think of to differentiate these two theories, to make a test with an 
observable that clearly favors one or the other model.  De Sitter predicts that

(quasar lightspeed) = c/(1+z).

Karl Popper would approve:  if the measured lightspeed of a quasar with z=1 
is not half-normal, then this old version of GR (de Sitter) can't be 
correct.  We have a disprovable prediction.

Then the question becomes, can you measure the speed of light for an 
astronomical object, and if so, how do you do it?

We were the first, and so far the only ones to accomplish this.  Probably 
no one else even tried.  You'd have to be crazy to even think of it, 
because everyone knows that the speed of light is constant.  It's been 
proven time and again.  So we're crazy and of course, if the apparatus 
functions correctly, we will indeed find that the speed of quasar light, 
like all other light, is 3E8 m/s.  It will be the case of another beautiful 
theory ruined by an ugly fact.  We will be forced to abandon the obsession 
with our favorite old, overlooked version of GR.  We will ride quietly into 
the night, looking for new windmills to slay.  But first, we need access to 
a larger scope.

I will refrain from delving into any gory details.  For a description of an 
older version of our equipment and method, and some of our early 
measurements with a 12" telescope, please see:

"A telescopic instrument for direct astronomical lightspeed measurements," 
Miller, J. B.; Miller, T. E., Measurement Science & Technology, 14 (2003) 
1815. "

I apologize for not previously explaining the rationale behind our quest 
for time on a 40".  I was perhaps overly afraid of straying off-topic with 
all the theoretical stuff.


Tom- 


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