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'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

bbc.co.uk

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Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#191

Post by pavon »

injb wrote: post #16

But why does the ship appear in that location, and not the water it's sitting on? What's special about the ship?

I think the explanation in the article is incorrect. This looks more like a false horizon caused by reflection of the fog on the water, rather than a mirage.

There is fog out past the ship. The water close to the viewer is reflecting the sky, and is blue, while water further out is reflecting the fog. The fog above the horizon blends in with the water reflecting the fog making it hard to see the true horizon line (but it is there in the picture if you look closely). The line where this reflection changes stands out much more strongly and the eye mistakes it for the horizon line.

This page has more examples of cases where these two different effects were confused: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-fata-morgana-or-mi...

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#192

Post by ALittleLight »

codetrotter wrote: post #106
Thomashuet wrote: post #9

The title should be 'Hovering ship', as it is in the BBC article. There is nothing special about a floating ship.

For future reference, the current title on HN is: > 'Floating ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker https://archive.is/JcBUY And the current title on BBC is: > 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker https://archive.is/AyAK4 Interestingly though, because of the quotation marks I understood “floating” to mean, as intended, that it looked like the ship was in the air and didn’t even think abou…

When I read the title I assumed it meant something like a hovercraft.

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#193

Post by pavon »

danbruc wrote: post #107
mc32 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Title should be ‘Fata Morgana sighted off Cornish Coast.’

No, it is not a Fata Morgana [1] but a superior mirage [2] as the article says. A Fata Morgana is a subclass of superior mirage that has multiple distorted images. Just learned this because of another comment. Whether calling it a Fata Morgana would be appropriate because it is the common laymen term for mirages in English I can not tell as non-native speaker. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage) […

Actually, in this case, I don't think it is any type of mirage. Rather it is a false horizon [1] caused by reflection of fog.

[1] https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-fata-morgana-or-mi...

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#194

Post by treesprite82 »

jeffwass wrote: post #92
jeffmcmahan wrote: post #87

I live on Lake Erie, and I've seen this effect before. There will be a point between the shore and the horizon at which the water takes on exactly the hue and luminance of the sky, and makes lakers, sailboats, buoys, even a nearby lighthouse, appear to hover. If the point of transition in the color of the water is pretty straight and is parallel with the actual horizon, the effect is convincing.

That’s not the case here. In this case the ship was ‘hovering’ due to an atmospheric effect called Superior Mirage. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage#Superior_mirage

The image in the article looks more like a false horizon (change in color of sea makes it blend into the sky), as jeffmcmahan is describing. You can just about make out the real horizon in the image.

Clearer example of false horizon: https://i.imgur.com/WHzQJ3Z.png

A superior mirage would usually cause more distortion and likely wouldn't so cleanly cut out the ship.

Clearer example of superior mirage: https://i.imgur.com/pa16mOk.png

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#195

Post by dylan604 »

klingon79 wrote: post #148
dylan604 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be very special if it were built by aliens

It likely was- but probably the terrestrial, non-xenobiological kind.

the use of this term in this manner has been deprecated

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#197

Post by checker »

russianbandit wrote: post #183
unloco wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a false horizon. Your eyes are seeing the reflection of the sky on the distant water or fog, making it appear the horizon is closer than it really is. So it is an optical illusion, as your brain is what is perceiving a horizon where it is not.

It’s not just one person’s brain, right? Everyone who was there would see the same thing. Surely, that means our brains are pretty much wired the same. But I wonder if some people would see the “correct” thing. What’s also mind blowing is that the camera captures the same thing your brain is interpreting!

This is proven to be a physical illusion because the light sensor (camera) is capturing the same image as the two light sensors in your head (eyes). So no person would see the "correct" thing because the light in the scene is actually rendering this image with minimal interpretive transformations from the mind (this is in contrast to cognitive illusions). Unless there is a person with some extreme sensitivity to the polarization or color of the reflected light but that is probably unlikely.

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#199

Post by mindcrime »

dvtrn wrote: post #159
judge2020 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For reference: https://twitter.com/KeirGiles/status/1367742771017224196

I might even go so far as to say that that is their desirable default state. As long as the front doesn’t fall off.

I can honestly say I laughed until I cried the first time I saw that. Possibly the most hilarious thing I've ever seen in my life.
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