A new way of verifying the effect of light-ray bending in the gravitational field of the sun

A technique for verifying the general-relativistic effect of light-ray bending in the solar gravitational field is proposed which involves measuring the duration of stellar days while observing two stars situated on different sides of the sun. A stellar day is defined as the interval of time between two successive similar culminations of the vernal equinox at one and the same geographic meridian. It is noted that as a result of bending of a light ray propagating from a star to earth, the angular distance between an observed star and the vernal equinox changes during the year as a function of the sighting distance of the ray. The result of these changes is the annual variation in the duration of the stellar day as measured by a terrestrial observer while observing a single star. This effect is evaluated quantitatively, and reasons for selecting two stars are discussed.