Yes...interestingly, if I'm not mistaken, ShammAyim (heaven/heavens) is unique in that the word itself is "dual" in form. There isn't a singular way to say "heaven" in the Hebrew....
There are, (to my knowledge) four words which are always in "dual" form:
"Egypt"..."Water"....Jerusalem and "heaven"....
I find there's something to be learned about the relationship between the duality of heavens and waters from this in regards to the "Canopy Theory"....This is a link I found with an article about it:
http://jbq.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/403/jbq_403_mayim.pdf
I am still studying this myself, and am only a novice to Hebrew, so I am no expert.
For me...I am YEC as well, and although there is some merit to the fact that light does indeed change in speed (it can be effected by gravity) I am not sure that's the answer to the problem. It could definitely be part of the equation. But, the simplest answer is that God created light before, and quite independently of celestial bodies which he made to "rule" them.
There was no "need" for the Sun and Moon or stars to generate light. The light was clearly there.
So also were "evenings" and "mornings". The Sun and moon were created AFTER the light AND the evenings and mornings. If a "Day" can be an indiscriminate epoch of "no-one knows how long"...then the statements that "evening and morning was the first day...second day...third day....etc." are patently meaningless.
This is where Luke's position breaks down IMO. The claim that "evening and morning" MUST have the Sun is simply logically unwarranted and un-Scriptural. The Bible clearly says they existed quite independently of them, and also light itself. The simple fact that it is NOW the case that the Sun "RULES" the Day and the moom "RULES" the night...doesn't mean that there can be no such thing prior to it. That's simply faulty logic. The denizens of the islands of Hawaii quite comfortably controlled themselves prior to the U.S. "ruling" of it. The mere fact that the U.S. NOW does, certainly doesn't mean that NNE controlled it before.
Secondarily....I am less than convinced that we can definitively KNOW the distance to a star which is presumed to be BILLIONS of light-years away...maybe so, I could be wrong. But, I have heard a few arguments that suggest that we can't know that precisely at all.
Good post IJ. I like the canopy theory as well.
HankD