The Sun sets in the west and passes beneath the earth, where rotating etheric currents flow quickly causing the Sun to rise on the other side in a matter of seconds, the luminiferous ether is denser in the vicinity of the first firmament (the Sun is outside), thus the Sun's light and mirage are maintained for some time in the west while the Sun is simultaneously rising again in the east.
The density of the luminiferous ether is also the reason why the Sun does not significantly change its apparent size, causing a magnifying effect like a magnifying glass.
Then, if you are stating that the ether does exist, I win.
Take a look at this:

The calculation was carried out by Wolfgang Pauli, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century.
"If the electromagnetic field would really have a non vanishing zero-point energy, 'the universe would not even reach to the moon'".
If the ether drift field (zero point energy, scalar waves) does exist, then the radius of curvature of the observable universe is 31 km.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/9/1/011/pdfC. P. Enz, A. Thellung : Nullpunktenergie und Anordnung
nicht vertauschbarer Faktoren im Hamiltonoperator ,
Helv. Phys. Acta 33, 839–848 (1960) pg 842
https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/53/1/1.24/218451https://arxiv.org/pdf/0810.2213.pdfNow you understand where you went wrong? You said that balloons ascend higher than 30 km. It can't be if you believe the ether does exist. From those 31 km that Pauli was talking about, you need to defer some 20 km for the stars and planets, and you are left with some 11 km to the dome.