Sunset Picture by XRT
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A G-band image, taken at 13:38:35UT on 16-May-2007
during the East limb co-alignment program, shows that
the Sun was severely warped. Well, obviously it wasn't
physically warped, but rather it has to do with an optical effect.
Since this frame was taken 25 sec before the predicted
Hinode Night entry, we may be seeing a refracted and
distorted optical image of the Sun at sunset--- not "Hinode" (sunrise),
but "Hinoiri" (sunset).
This effect was discussed by Kepler in a work called "Paralipomena
ad Vitellionem" or "Additions to Witello." (Don't ask why Witello.
It's a long story.) It's in a work called "The Optical Part of
Astronomy" in which he investigates the distorting effects of the
atmosphere on our observations. He came within a whisker of finding
the law of refraction in that work. (Kepler used the tangent instead
of the sine, but he eventually rejected that particular ratio because
he could tell that it didn't work for the extreme cases, i.e., large
angles.) It's also the work where he showed that the eye works via
a lens that forms an image on the retina. But you'll have to read
Latin for this ...
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(prepared by B. Ishibashi and L. Golub)
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