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Karl-Heinz Homann (April
29, 1933 – April 23, 2008):
 Karl-Heinz
was born in Oer-Erkenschwick near Recklinghausen, Germany. He
had a background as a mechanic and machinist, and had a Master's
Degree as an Electronic Technician. Most of his life he was
self-employed, both in Germany and in Canada. He and his family
emigrated to Canada in 1980. He spent his remaining years on a
small farm near Peers, Alberta.
Every job was his hobby. He loved flying his airplane, enjoyed
travel, hiking, reading and organic gardening, but his passion
was mathematics and astronomy. He studied the knowledge and
mysteries surrounding ancient cultures, especially of Ancient
Egypt and the Great Pyramid which held an incredible fascination
for him. In his avid reading, he came across Robert Temple’s
book The Sirius Mystery and later
during his own research, Karl-Heinz was intrigued by the work of
R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz.
De Lubicz says an interesting thing while
talking about the Egyptians use of Sirius to time their yearly
calendar events. He said:
For it is remarkable that owing to the
precession of the equinoxes, on the one hand, and the movement
of Sirius on the other, the position of the sun with respect to
Sirius is displaced in the same direction, almost exactly to the
same extent. [R.A. Schwaller de
Lubicz, Sacred Science, Inner Traditions (1982)]
It was this short statement that launched Karl
on his decision to find out if this was true. His detailed
observations over a 20 year period show definitively that
Sirius does not precess. This may have been why
the Egyptians were so interested in Sirius and why it’s heliacal
rising (first annual appearance of the star just before sun
rise) became the calibration point for their calendar system.
The beauty of their use of Sirius is that they did not have to
worry about leap years at all and yet this system will maintain
accuracy better than the Gregorian calendar. What Pope Gregory’s
experts didn’t know was this crucial piece of information:
Sirius does not precess.
The fact that Sirius seems to maintain its
position relative to the position of the sun was a surprise to
most scientists (aware of precession), when it was first noticed
by the French scientific community following the Egyptian
discoveries of Napoleon (and the Dendera Zodiac) in the early
1800’s. Perhaps to save the lunisolar theory of precession, or
at least to make sense of physics as then taught, physicist,
astronomer, mathematician Jean-Baptiste Biot
(21 April 1774 – 3 February 1862) proclaimed that this
phenomenon was an oddity of the latitude and horizon around
Dendera, meaning it just seemed as if Sirius was immune to the
effects of precession. And to this day this is the assumption of
many astronomers and astrophysicists. Physicist Jed
Z. Buchwald, professor of history and science and technology
(Caltech and MIT) commented on this topic in his article
Egyptian Stars Under Paris Skies, when he noted:
The rising of Sirius, the brightest star
in the heavens and important to Egyptians as the signal for the
annual flooding of the Nile, was assumed by the French
physicists to move with relation to the sun as do the
constellations of the zodiac. It does not, however, as we see
here.
The curved line dividing the lit from the
dark regions represents the horizon near Dendera. The blue lines
show the locations of the ecliptic with respect to the horizon
at five helical risings separated by hundreds of years. The
vernal points mark the equinoxes at these times, and the circled
numbers on the lower right indicate the corresponding positions
of Sirius. Sirius remains about the same distance from the
equinoxes—and so from the solstices— throughout these many
centuries, despite precession.
As far as we know Karl Heinz Homann is the
first to conduct an extended study of the timing and position of
Sirius using modern instruments. It is either an amazing
coincidence that horizon and latitude of Edmonton Canada mimic
the horizon and latitude of Dendera Egypt, or Mr. Homann has
made an incredible discovery.
Karl Homann, this remarkable man, using a simple set of tools
measured the position of Sirius religiously and timed its
passing
the center line of the cross hairs in his fixed telescope
against the atomic time (from Fort Collins) beeping from a radio
in his observatory. This
is a form of what is typically referred to as a meridian transit
observation. Karl found that the view from the location
available at his home in Canada was better if he pointed his
telescope to the Southwest rather than due South which is used
for a true meridian transit. He took readings each year usually
from December to April and sometimes was able, by careful timing
and clear skies, to stretch the range of available dates from
September to June. After June, Sirius passes behind the Sun and
the attendant glare hides Sirius for 2 months or so.
I personally had the pleasure of visiting
Karl-Heinz and seeing his laboratory with the famous telescope
pointed to the southwest. We enjoyed tea until the appropriate
sidereal time when Karl knew Sirius would soon be passing in
front of the telescope lens (late in the afternoon I was there).
Prior to this I was not even aware that Sirius was so easy to
see in the daylight! Listening to the signal time beeping in the
background I watched the front edge of Sirius touch the vertical
line in the scope (first contact) then pass through as the earth
moved the telescope across this portion of the sky. Karl
recorded the exact time and gave a big smile – he knew the
implications were profound.
Walter Cruttenden
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