Originally posted by FreakyKBH
What you are failing to consider--- as you have continually failed to consider--- is that it is unnecessary to run such a test with a telescope on account that we ALREADY are able to see objects which ought to be below the horizon.
We can see hundreds of miles away at certain elevations, with or without aid... which we shouldn't be able to, were the planet a sphere.
Yes, with the key, a planet with a significant atmosphere and temperature differentials making a lens effect. If there was no air on Earth there would be no seeing hundreds of miles away. Period. Just like on the moon, the horizon, whatever altitude you are at, that horizon is IT, not an inch more.
Like I said, if Earth was flat you could see RM from Chicago. Do you know nothing of optical resolution and the eye? Do you not believe the human eye is good for 1 minute or resolution or 60 arc seconds? Do you even know what that means?
Here is a brief discussion of mirages:
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~aty/mirages/distance.html
You choose not to believe it but this is the real deal.
And this:
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~aty/bibliog/toc.html#mirages
This, called 'the flat Earth model':
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~aty/explain/atmos_refr/models/flat.html
Excerpt from that page:
"Flat-Earth sunsets
flat-Earth sunset The exact formula for refraction on a flat Earth allows one to draw the shape of the setting Sun that would be observed in this situation. Here it is, at the right:
The Sun would appear to set on a surface about 1.6° above the astronomical horizon. The drawing shows the Sun's shape at the moment when its lower limb touches this false apparent horizon; the full width of the Sun's disk is shown. Everything between the false horizon and the astronomical horizon would be filled with a gigantic superior mirage of the (flat) Earth's surface.
Qualitatively, this highly flattened sunset image resembles what's seen by an observer inside a duct; see the second image in the simulation showing a wide blank strip. But quantitatively, the negative dip here is an order of magnitude larger than in that case, which is already very unusual. And of course there is no dip at all for the sea horizon in the flat-Earth model, where the sea horizon would coincide with the astronomical horizon.
Although the details of the mirages in this huge blank strip would depend on the density structure of the flat atmosphere, Newton's proof mentioned above guarantees that all sunsets in the flat-Earth model must have exactly this bizarre appearance. In particular, the enormous elevation of the false horizon depends only on the refractive index of air at the observer — a quantity known to many decimal places from laboratory measurements.
The fact that no real sunset on Earth ever has these characteristics can be taken as observational evidence that the Earth is round, not flat."
I am back home, slept at hospital for last three days. Operation over, she is in a lot of pain right now but prognosis is good.