Airy's Failure

The experiment called Airy’s Failure was an test conducted in 1871 which showed that the stars move relative to a horizontally fixed Earth. By first filling a telescope with water to slow down the speed of light inside, then calculating the tilt necessary to get the starlight directly down the tube, Airy demonstrated that the earth was fixed horizontally since the starlight was already coming in at the correct angle with no change necessary.

Malcolm Bowden

Geocentrist Malcom Bowden gives a description of Airy's Failure:

Description: ""Airey's failure" (Reference - Proc. Roy. Soc. London v 20 p 35). Telescopes have to be very slightly tilted to get the starlight going down the axis of the tube because of the earth's "speed around the sun". Airey filled a telescope with water that greatly slowed down the speed of the light inside the telescope and found that he did not have to change the angle of the telescope. This showed that the starlight was already coming in at the correct angle so that no change was needed. This demonstrated that it was the stars moving relative to a stationary earth and not the fast orbiting earth moving relative to the comparatively stationary stars. If it was the telescope moving he would have had to change the angle."

Further Reading

• Airy's Failure Reconsidered by Walter van der Kamp