Question: Doesn’t the consistency and viewing area of Polaris and Sigma Octantis prove that the Earth is a globe?

Answer: No, the behavior of Polaris (the North Star) and Sigma Octantis (the alleged South Pole Star) actually demonstrate the fallacy of the globe model.

The following is an excerpt from Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe (by Samuel Birley Rowbotham):

It has often been urged that the
earth must be a globe, because the stars in the southern "hemisphere"
move round a south polar star; in the same way that those of the north revolve
round "Polaris," or the northern pole star. This is another instance
of the sacrifice of truth, and denial of the evidence of our senses for the
purpose of supporting a theory which is in every sense false and unnatural. It
is known to every observer that the north pole star is the centre of a number
of constellations which move over the earth in a circular direction. Those
nearest to it, as the "Great Bear," &c., &c., are always
visible in England during their whole twenty-four hours’ revolution. Those
further away southwards rise north-north-east, and set south-south-west; still
further south they rise east by north, and set west by north. The farthest
south visible from England, the rising is more to the east and south-east, and
the setting to the west and south-west. But all the stars visible from London rise and
set in a way which is not compatible
with the doctrine of rotundity. For in-stance, if we stand with our backs to
the north, on the high land known as "Arthur’s Seat," near Edinburgh,
and note the stars in the zenith of our position, and watch for several hours, the
zenith stars will gradually recede to the north-west.
If we do the same on Woodhouse Moor, near Leeds, or on any of the mountain tops
in Yorkshire or Derbyshire, the same phenomenon is observed. The same thing may
be seen from the top of Primrose Hill, near Regent’s Park, London; from
Hampstead Heath; or Shooter’s Hill, near Woolwich. If we remain all night, we
shall observe the same stars rising towards our position from the north-east,
showing that the path of all the stars between ourselves and the northern centre
move round the north pole-star as a common centre of rotation; just as they must do over a plane such as the earth is
proved to be. It is undeniable that upon a globe zenith stars would rise, pass
over head, and set in the plane of the observer’s position. If now we carefully
watch in the same way the zenith stars from the Rock of Gibraltar, the very
same phenomenon is observed. The same is also the case from Cape of Good Hope,
Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, in New Zealand, in Rio Janeiro, Monte Video,
Valparaiso, and other places in the south. If then the zenith stars of all the
places on the earth, where special observations have been made, rise from the
morning horizon to the zenith of an observer, and descend to the evening
horizon, not in a plane of the
position of such observer, but in an arc of a circle concentric with the
northern centre, the earth is thereby proved to be a
plane, and rotundity altogether disproved–shown, indeed, to be impossible.

Here, however, we
are met with the positive assertion that there is a very small star (of about
the sixth magnitude) in the south, called Sigma
Octantis, round which all the constellations of the south revolve, and
which is therefore the southern polar star. It is scarcely polite to contradict
the statements made, but it is certain that persons who have been educated to
believe that the earth is a globe, going to the southern parts of the earth do
not examine such matters critically. They see the stars move from towards the
east towards the west, and they are satisfied. But they have not instituted
special experiments, regardless of results, to ascertain the real and absolute
movements of the southern constellations. Another thing is certain, that from
and within the equator the north pole star, and the constellations Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and many others,
can be seen from every meridian simultaneously; whereas in the south, from the
equator, neither the so-called south pole star, nor the remarkable
constellation of the Southern Cross, can be seen simultaneously from every
meridian, showing that all the constellations of the south–pole star
included–sweep over a great southern arc and across the meridian, from their
rise in the evening to their setting in the morning. But if the earth is a globe, Sigma Octantis a south pole star, and the Southern
Cross a southern circumpolar constellation, they would all be visible at the
same time from every longitude on the same latitude, as is the case with the
northern pole star and the northern circumpolar constellations. Such, however, is strangely not
the case; Sir James Clarke Ross did not see it until he was 8° south of the
equator, and in longitude 30° W. ¹

MM. Von Spix and Karl Von Martius,
in their account of -their scientific travels in Brazil, in 1817-1820, relate
that "on the 15th of June, in latitude 14° S, we beheld, for the first time, that
glorious constellation of the southern heavens, the Cross, which is to navigators
a token of peace, and, according to its position, indicates the hours of the
night. We had long wished for this constellation as a guide to the other
hemisphere; we therefore felt inexpressible pleasure when we perceived it in
the resplendent firmament."

The great
traveller Humboldt says:–

"We saw distinctly, for the first time, the cross of the
south, on the nights of the 4th and 5th of July, in the 16th degree of
latitude. It was strongly inclined, and appeared from time to time between the
clouds. . . . The pleasure felt on discovering the Southern Cross was warmly
shared in by such of the crew as had lived in the colonies."

If the Southern
Cross is a circumpolar cluster of stars, it is a matter of absolute certainty
that it could never be in-visible to navigators upon or south of the equator.
It would always be seen far above the horizon, just as the "Great
Bear" is at all times visible upon and north of the equator. More
especially ought it to be at all times visible when the nearest star belonging to
it is considerably nearer to the so-called "pole star of the south"
than is the nearest of the stars in the "Great Bear" to the pole star
of the north. Humboldt did not see the Southern Cross until he was in the 16th
latitude south, and then it was "strongly inclined," showing that it
was rising in the east, and sharing in the general sweep of the stars from east
to west, in common with the whole firmament of stars moving round the pole star
of the northern region.

We have seen that
wherever the motions of the stars are carefully examined, it is found that all
are connected, and move in relation to the northern centre of the earth. There
is nowhere to be found a "break" in the general connection. Except,
indeed, what is called the "proper motion" of certain stars and
groups of stars all move in the same general direction, concentric with the
north pole, and with velocities increasing with radial distance from it. To
remove every possible doubt respecting the motions of the stars from the
central north to the most extreme south, a number of special observers, each
completely free from the bias of education respecting the supposed rotundity of
the earth, might be placed in various southern localities, to observe and
record the motions of the well known southern constellation, not in relation to
a supposed south pole star, but to the meridian
and latitude of each position. This would satisfy a certain number of those who
cannot divest themselves of the idea of rotundity, but is not at all necessary
for the satisfaction of those who are convinced that the earth is a plane, and
that the extreme south is a vast circumference instead of a polar centre. To
these the evidence already adduced will be sufficiently demonstrative.

The points of
certainty are the following:–

1st.–Wherever the experiment is
made the stars in the zenith do
not rise, culminate, and set
in the same straight line, or plane of latitude, as they
would if the earth is a globe.

2nd.–The Southern Cross is not
at all times visible from every point of the southern hemisphere, as the
"Great Bear" is from every point in the northern, and as both must
necessarily and equally be visible if the earth is globular. In reference to
the several cases adduced of the Southern Cross not being visible until the
observers had arrived in latitudes 8°, 14°, and 16° south, it cannot be said
that they might not have cared to look for it, because we are assured that they
"had long wished for it," and therefore must have been strictly on
the look out as they advanced southwards. And when the traveller Humboldt saw
it "the first time" it was "strongly inclined," and
therefore low down on the eastern horizon, and therefore previously invisible,
simply because it had not yet risen.

3rd.–The earth is a plane, with
a northern centre, over which the stars (whether fixed in some peculiar
substance or floating in some subtle medium is not yet known) move in
concentric courses at different radial distances from the northern centre as
far south as and wherever observations have been made. The evidence is the
author’s own experiments in Great Britain, Ireland, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight,
and many other places; the statements of several unbiassed and truthful
friends, who have resided in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Rio Janeiro,
Valparaiso, and other southern localities, and the several incidental
statements already quoted.

4th–The southern region of the
earth is not central, but circumferential; and therefore there is no southern
pole, no south pole star, and no southern circumpolar constellations; all statements to the contrary are
doubtful, inconsistent with known facts, and therefore not admissible as
evidence.

¹ "South Sea Voyages," p. 19, vol. 1.

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