List members,
I have been re-considering the idea of a mini offset opening. Not so much
the part about it being offset, but about it's being mini.
One thing that has prompted my thinking is this NASA study
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast09dec97
which Rod has posted on his site, to the effect that the positively charged
ions ( and what else? ) which cause the auroral display, originate from the
Earth and are not due to Solar winds, at least not so much. This means that
we can now confidently argue ( not just in closets ) the idea that the
aurorae oringinate in the hollow portion, as did the older writers such as
Gardner.
Cater argues that since the auroral display manifests in a circle, then the
radiations which cause it must be traveling through circular resistence as
they leave the inner Earth, too. Remember that the atmosphere hugs the Earth
in a 45 mile band. This means that if the opening were 90 miles or less wide
at the neck, then the auroral display should shoot out in a beam, the
radiations encountering atmospheric resistence all of the way across. If
the radiations don't, then that suggests that the opening is far broader at
the neck, and that the atmosphere thins in the center, such that the
radiations emanating from the inner sun encounter no resistence in the
center, and don't disintegrate to our view as they speed out. A curved,
doughnut opening and thermal differences in atmospherics could account for
diffration which spreads out the diameter of the display.
The fact that we can now more freely consider that the inner sun is the
source of the aurora is what allows us to conclude about the width of the
opening.
Dean