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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

#222

Post by cevn »

btilly wrote: post #168
midrus wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...The optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed..." To me that's the most Men In Black explanation I've ever heard. Definitely confirms this is aliens.

Here is a lay explanation. Light travels at different speeds in different substances. But it always takes a path that is locally fastest - meaning that any nearby path would be slower. (This is called the Fermat principle.) You can see this principle at work when you put a stick into water. Because light travels more slowly in water, the light first heads mostly straight up, then bends when it hits the air. The resul…

OK so, that's how the air ripples work for heat... because of the density of the air.

It makes me wonder, if you had a 10 inch globe of vacuum suspended in air, how different looking thru it would appear vs the air. It seems like you might be able to detect it via sight alone.

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

#223

Post by ryantgtg »

dmix wrote: post #205

This picture will help explain the "superior mirage": https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Su... Note in the OP's original link the bottom half is cut off entirely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage?oldformat=true#Superior...

Growing up in Santa Barbara, I would see something like this everyday. Freighters going through the channel, the oil derricks, and the Channels Islands all exhibited it.

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

#225

Post by contingencies »

randomsearch wrote: post #181

When I see things like this, I imagine how people would have reacted before we had explanations... it isn't difficult to imagine where some myths and religious stories originate.

The most famous related Chinese mythology is from Yantai in Shandong which is at a roughly similar latitude. They call it "the eight immortals crossing the sea" (八仙过海; bā xiān guò hǎi). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Immortals https://penglaicity.blogspot.com/2010/06/visions-of-immortal... Unfortunately in a misguided bid to generate more tourist dollars in 2011 the local government razed the previously beautiful port and replaced it with a walled fake ancient town. http://pratyeka.org/penglai-destroyed/

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

#227

Post by sixstringtheory »

ksaj wrote: post #221

I strongly suspect the Marfa Lights (in Texas) are the land version of this exact phenomenon. In that case, car headlights looking like they are floating above the land horizon instead of boats over the water horizon.

Another headlight phenomenon, "light pillars": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pillar

Really freaked me out the first time I saw some moving about on a dark country road from other cars off in the distance.

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

#229

Post by jamiek88 »

thedanbob wrote: post #139
globular-toast wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something just occurred to me. Is this actually an optical illusion? My idea of an optical illusion is one where your brain perceives something that is different from reality. Indeed, when I look it up I see examples of that (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_illusion ) But in this case your brain isn't doing anything wrong, the light reaching your eyes is what's "wrong" and your brain is correctly interpret…

I think you're right, this is a mirage. The article uses both terms interchangeably.

It’s a ‘superior mirage’ technically.
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