Sirius Research Files
Karl-Heinz Homann's Original Data, Digitized and Graphed

Binary Research Institute
Newport Beach, CA



Files from Sirius Research Group:

Karl-Heinz Homann's Original Data, Digitized and Graphed


We at BRI are very glad to be able to provide the original Sirius transit data that Karl-Heinz Homann painstakingly recorded from December, 1988 thru April, 2008. The data here was pulled from Mr. Homann's original manuscript. This manuscript is available here (at 30 MB or in smaller chunks of about 4 MB each here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) so that we can provide complete transparency on the process of digitization that we carried out. All the text in the manuscript is in German and we are working on a complete translation to accompany this resource. Mr. Homann used a basic transit instrument with a 25-Power magnification, permanently aligned in a southwesterly direction. He used a time reference obtained from the UTC atomic time radio signal from WWV Fort Collins in Colorado. He then experienced the astronomer's delight of having to awake at all hours of the night and early morning to take this data on the passing of Sirius overhead (to the southwest) in Peers, Alberta (near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada).

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Karl-Heinz Homann (April 29, 1933 April 23, 2008):

Karl-Heinz HomannKarl-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. 

Explanation of Heliacal Rising of Sirius by Physicist Jed Z. Buchwald

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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Copyright
Photos: Karl-Heinz Homann, BRI
Illustration: Karl-Heinz Homann, BRI
Source: Binary Research Institute

This web site is a Jan.-Feb. 2018 accessed archive copy of the original version, saved at TYCHOS.info to preserve the web reference. External links may no longer be valid.

Source URL: http://www.binaryresearchinstitute.org/srg/SiriusResearchIntro.shtml

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