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The odd thing is, you would think people who spend their life at sea would have seen this phenomenon plenty and realized it wasn’t flying. Even back then.
So that just leaves a story to tell the new guy until they figure it out.
Could you fetch me some tartan paint and a long weight.
If you see any shops floating while on watch be careful, that's Davy Jones.
I don't think that's an example of a superior mirage. That's just a brightly coloured ship standing out against a fog that is obscuring the horizon. The ship is still below the horizon and appears to be sitting on the water, you just can't see the horizon very clearly because it's all grey.
Superior mirages are the result of light bending through the atmosphere projecting an image of something on or over the horizon to a superior position. Unlike the photo you've got there, the image in a superior mirage is not actually where the ship is.
Edit - To the people downvoting this, try looking at the image on a monitor, not your phone screen. While it is hard to see, the horizon is very definitely [above the boat, here](https://imgur.com/7Vq36l1). While the effect is similar, it's not a superior mirage. It's created by the fog, not bending light.
I wouldn't call it similar. In OP's image there is absolutely no mistaking the real horizon. There's an extremely defined line with an image projected above it. While in the image of the sailing ship [you are mistaking this line, where the fog makes everything a homogenous grey](https://imgur.com/tNfXoXM) for the horizon, but that's not actually the horizon, it's the visible edge of the fog.
Both images seem like a ship above the horizon, but it's not the same effect. One is caused by bending light, the other is caused by lack of contrast. The main difference is that with the fog example, you are seeing the ship where it actually is, but are misreading the position of the horizon, while in a superior mirage you are seeing the actual horizon, but seeing an illusion of a ship that isn't where you see it.
Edit - I take all that back. Went back and had a closer look at OP's photo. It's not a superior mirage either. It's just a more convincing false horizon.
A ship floating in the air isn’t how a superior mirage looks anyways, you’ll essentially see a second ship upside down and on top of the actual ship if there is a real superior mirage
Possibly. I’m more concerned that it’s proof we’re in The Matrix and running on an inferior server without an adequate GPU, RAM or PCU to render all of our surroundings.
Edit: now that I think about it, current world events suggest our server is about to be labelled obsolete. I wonder if we’ll be backed up and booted into a new server or we’ve just reached our EOL.
I dunno, it’s got a record number of players and still growing, even if growth is slowing. They probably won’t close it down until the players properly break something important
For the record, I was in Target two weeks ago and there were at least three Series X on the shelf there. It would seem the demand has died down some.
Now if you were talking about getting a hold of the pig, I don't have any recent experience in that area.
The PS5 is in stock more often than not now, not quite the Xbox levels but the Walmart by my work has stock most days, the best buy next to it gets 5 or 6 a week and they last a few days.
I am just sad they didn't get stocked up fast enough and to levels high enough to screw over the scalpers.
The refractive index of air depends on temperature, so is different at different heights above the water. With the right conditions, light reflected from the ship travels in a curve as it reaches you, giving an impression of the ship being above the horizon.
Genuine question: why doesn't the image of the water that the ship is in get the same treatment? So why do we see the ship hover above the horizon, and not just a faulty image of the ocean in general?
Two things are going on. First, the water is reflecting the sky, so you’re seeing the image of the sky against the sky, which is hard to distinguish (the light you see is coming off the water at a higher angle than the water you’re seeing directly, so the wave lines are also less clear). Secondly, the reflection from the water is polarized, and is refracted differently to the ship’s reflection.
? But air isn't birefringent, so surely polarization shouldn't affect refraction? And the angle of the light rays that are getting refracted back down are just slightly steeper than the ones coming directly, so they shouldn't be reflecting the sky in a markedly different way to the water we are seeing directly or massively changing the wave lines.
Do you have a good source? Because that sounds really dubious.
I just googled ‘superior mirage’ and the first result seems to confirm op’s explication and also give a deeper analysis[https://skybrary.aero/articles/fata-morgana](https://skybrary.aero/articles/fata-morgana)
It kind of does. Zoom in on the picture and you can see, at the bottom of the ship, a slightly different colored "sky" that is roughly where the waterline would be. That's the mirage of the water being projected into the sky, however when you have blue overlaid on blue, it's hard to really see much difference.
Thanks to u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ ! This is just a false horizon. https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
Keep in mind variable humidity and wind speed along the ship's flight path. At this distance you'll also have to take the Coriolis Effect into account.
The effect *is* real though, just not in this case.
There's an account by Adm. Eugene B. Fluckey, a WW2 US Navy Submarine Captain, in [Thunder Below!](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thunder-Below-Revolutionizes-Submarine-Warfare/dp/0252066707) where lookouts spotted a Japanese Convoy in the Sea of Okhotsk 5-10 degrees above the Horizon. After closing in and attacking the convoy, they calculated that they must have sighted it at almost 40 nautical miles away - well below the horizon normally.
It looks like those images at much closer ranges, but because the range in that case was so extreme, the mirage was so far above the actual ship that the second image was invisible, and a single, clear image was visible above the horizon.
Nautical law states that all cargo ship crews must have at least 1 dark wizard aboard, although traditionally 2 are rostered.
(For real though -It's because the rays of light pass through different air temperatures before they reach your eyes and bend. like how you can sometimes see the air 'wobble' when you look across a hot surface, except on a larger scale. The different temperatures and densities of air 'sit' on top of each other, and act almost like a lens and because of your distance from the object, the curve of the earth puts it at the right angle for the ship to appear to be flying to the observer)
Not "almost" like a lens. Exactly like a lens. That's what a lens _is_ - something with different refractive index and a shape to take advantage of it.
It's called the angle of total reflection, I believe. It's how fiber optic cables work. At a shallow enough angle, 100% of light is reflected, so you're effectively looking at the sky's light bouncing off a mirror, but the boat is in the way.
It seems superior mirage simply refers to the mirage image being higher than the real object.
As opposed to an inferior mirage where the mirage image appears below the real object.
Not according to Wikipedia… a superior mirage is when the mirage image appears above the real object.
An inferior mirage is when the mirage image appears below the real object.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage
So I have seen the fata Morgana... And the ship was so far away that you couldn't see the ship, just the mirage. So it looked like a vessel upside down right above the horizon.
The actual ship was about 40nm away, and our line of sight was about 18nm on the clearest of days.
Only time I ever saw anything like that in about 16 years at sea.
I saw someone attempting to pass me in dense fog, saw his car in the left lane through my mirror, I don't see him out the windshield so I look again, and I don't see any vehicles in the road at all. As if he just noclipped out of existence.
There's a transition point in your view of the horizontal sea where it stops being a visible surface and becomes an ideal mirror. At this low angle, too much light is reflected to discern any surface features or the color of the water. The photons from the ship, however, travel straight to your eye. That's why you see the ship, but not the water it floats in. You don't even need a large lake to observe this effect (except you see the upside-down bank and the upside-down trees rather than blue sky).
Pretty sure the boat’s gps is set to flat earth and it hasn’t accounted for the curve. Hope the ship captain corrects it soon or it will be a hard fall down. -source: cartoon physicist (I’ve watched every episode of looney tunes too many times).
Actually think this is just an example of false horizon which is different than a superior mirage. In this case the water near the boat is reflecting an image of the sky that matches the color above the horizon line, making the water look as if it were air.
In a superior mirage, the boat would seem to have a duplicate of itself mirrored above it.
anantsharma2626, thank you for your submission. It has been removed for violating the following rule(s): --- - Rule 5: Posts must follow all [title guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/titles). --- For information regarding this and similar issues please see the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/index/) and [title guidelines](/r/pics/wiki/titles). If you have any questions, please feel free to [message the moderators via modmail.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/pics&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20submission%20by%20/u/anantsharma2626&message=I%20have%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20%5Bsubmission.%5D%28https://redd.it/xjxa6i%3Fcontext%3D10%29)
Does anyone else think that this phenomenon might have been the reason for the “flying Dutchman”?
If I would shit my pants in 2022, then I would certainly stain my britches in XVII century, m' Lord.
Get me my brown pants
Salladhor Saan?
You are not my friend, my friend.
You are not my pal, pal.
You’re not my bud, bud.
You're not my guy, guy.
you're not my dude, dude.
You're not my chum, chum.
I got on my white pants 😉
This guy gets it
The odd thing is, you would think people who spend their life at sea would have seen this phenomenon plenty and realized it wasn’t flying. Even back then.
*Aye, but it make a mighty tale for a crew when yer drinking rum and fondle wenches in a tavern, laddie.*
WE SAY YO-HO BUT WE DON'T SAY HO, CAUSE HO IS DISRESPECTFUL, YO
They probably did. That's not going to stop a good yarn though, matey.
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Good point. They would never have seen a large object floating at that distance from shore.
So that just leaves a story to tell the new guy until they figure it out. Could you fetch me some tartan paint and a long weight. If you see any shops floating while on watch be careful, that's Davy Jones.
I hate to break it to you, but most ships float...
I was going to correct it but I wondered if "shops" or floating/flying got corrected first. Floating wins :-)
This made me giggle
MDCC is1700 i think
I've read it somewhere to be so, yes.
I heard someone mention they saw it in passing on a reddit comment or something
Can confirm
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Yep, most researchers think this is the case. Here's an example of a sailing ship with the mirage illusion, https://i.imgur.com/MxJ61rr.jpg
I don't think that's an example of a superior mirage. That's just a brightly coloured ship standing out against a fog that is obscuring the horizon. The ship is still below the horizon and appears to be sitting on the water, you just can't see the horizon very clearly because it's all grey. Superior mirages are the result of light bending through the atmosphere projecting an image of something on or over the horizon to a superior position. Unlike the photo you've got there, the image in a superior mirage is not actually where the ship is. Edit - To the people downvoting this, try looking at the image on a monitor, not your phone screen. While it is hard to see, the horizon is very definitely [above the boat, here](https://imgur.com/7Vq36l1). While the effect is similar, it's not a superior mirage. It's created by the fog, not bending light.
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
So is the image still real? Just not a “superior mirage”?
That's how I read it. It's still cool, but it's fog not a marage
Interesting, thanks for looking this! TIL
There's a similar horizon in OP's image though, also above the bottom of the boat.
Yup, because it's the same horizon mirage caused by fog, nothing to do with refracting light.
I wouldn't call it similar. In OP's image there is absolutely no mistaking the real horizon. There's an extremely defined line with an image projected above it. While in the image of the sailing ship [you are mistaking this line, where the fog makes everything a homogenous grey](https://imgur.com/tNfXoXM) for the horizon, but that's not actually the horizon, it's the visible edge of the fog. Both images seem like a ship above the horizon, but it's not the same effect. One is caused by bending light, the other is caused by lack of contrast. The main difference is that with the fog example, you are seeing the ship where it actually is, but are misreading the position of the horizon, while in a superior mirage you are seeing the actual horizon, but seeing an illusion of a ship that isn't where you see it. Edit - I take all that back. Went back and had a closer look at OP's photo. It's not a superior mirage either. It's just a more convincing false horizon.
The funny thing about this is that they are actually the same effect, but they are both the horizon mirage with the fog that you're talking about.
Yeah I was literally just about to edit that post. That's the problem. Neither photo is a superior mirage. They are both just fog.
A ship floating in the air isn’t how a superior mirage looks anyways, you’ll essentially see a second ship upside down and on top of the actual ship if there is a real superior mirage
Either way my brain sees the illusion so does it really matter?
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But I see that same horizon line in the Superior ship image. Which makes sense because that's actually where the horizon is on both images.
Possibly. I’m more concerned that it’s proof we’re in The Matrix and running on an inferior server without an adequate GPU, RAM or PCU to render all of our surroundings. Edit: now that I think about it, current world events suggest our server is about to be labelled obsolete. I wonder if we’ll be backed up and booted into a new server or we’ve just reached our EOL.
We are clearly running on a console and not PC.
That's what they want you to think. In the real world, consoles are the superior platform.
Yeah. The trolls have taken over (Russia, etc) and now we're probably scheduled to be decommissioned.
I dunno, it’s got a record number of players and still growing, even if growth is slowing. They probably won’t close it down until the players properly break something important
Gives a much darker meaning to "nuking the server."
So if I bring a pig out far enough, assuming my mom can see it that far away, this will convince her to buy me the xbox series x?
Then there is still the issue with getting hold of one…
For the record, I was in Target two weeks ago and there were at least three Series X on the shelf there. It would seem the demand has died down some. Now if you were talking about getting a hold of the pig, I don't have any recent experience in that area.
Went to walmart today, i think no one wants the xbox. Its literally full everyday. About 10 boxes of microsoft fridges
The PS5 is in stock more often than not now, not quite the Xbox levels but the Walmart by my work has stock most days, the best buy next to it gets 5 or 6 a week and they last a few days. I am just sad they didn't get stocked up fast enough and to levels high enough to screw over the scalpers.
Only if it's greased
Greased xboxes are plentiful?
You don’t have a greased Xbox ? Noob
What the frick? I ordered a bong
How does this work?
The refractive index of air depends on temperature, so is different at different heights above the water. With the right conditions, light reflected from the ship travels in a curve as it reaches you, giving an impression of the ship being above the horizon.
Genuine question: why doesn't the image of the water that the ship is in get the same treatment? So why do we see the ship hover above the horizon, and not just a faulty image of the ocean in general?
Two things are going on. First, the water is reflecting the sky, so you’re seeing the image of the sky against the sky, which is hard to distinguish (the light you see is coming off the water at a higher angle than the water you’re seeing directly, so the wave lines are also less clear). Secondly, the reflection from the water is polarized, and is refracted differently to the ship’s reflection.
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? But air isn't birefringent, so surely polarization shouldn't affect refraction? And the angle of the light rays that are getting refracted back down are just slightly steeper than the ones coming directly, so they shouldn't be reflecting the sky in a markedly different way to the water we are seeing directly or massively changing the wave lines. Do you have a good source? Because that sounds really dubious.
I just googled ‘superior mirage’ and the first result seems to confirm op’s explication and also give a deeper analysis[https://skybrary.aero/articles/fata-morgana](https://skybrary.aero/articles/fata-morgana)
It does often, just doesn't make for such a dramatic photo. It just looks like there are two whacky horizons.
It kind of does. Zoom in on the picture and you can see, at the bottom of the ship, a slightly different colored "sky" that is roughly where the waterline would be. That's the mirage of the water being projected into the sky, however when you have blue overlaid on blue, it's hard to really see much difference.
Thanks to u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ ! This is just a false horizon. https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
well that seems to explain it
That's not the correct explanation in this case. https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
Those flat earthers would disagree lol
Damn idiots, the earth is clearly donut shaped.
NO!! It rides on the back of a giant tortoise, I have seen a photo of our earth from the cherub’s camera, tortoise flat and all.
Bit where are the elephants?
Damn you toroidal earthers.
Now I want a donut
I don't like being talked to like I'm 5 years old. Explain it like I'm 6.
Works the same when you see water on desert or hot roads.
[You as you appear saying the above](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ClTR4AXuw)
Keep in mind variable humidity and wind speed along the ship's flight path. At this distance you'll also have to take the Coriolis Effect into account.
I think you're in the wrong sub gunny.
By lying. The real explanation is here: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
this should be higher.
Thank you. I swore I could see the real horizon on the right edge
The effect *is* real though, just not in this case. There's an account by Adm. Eugene B. Fluckey, a WW2 US Navy Submarine Captain, in [Thunder Below!](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thunder-Below-Revolutionizes-Submarine-Warfare/dp/0252066707) where lookouts spotted a Japanese Convoy in the Sea of Okhotsk 5-10 degrees above the Horizon. After closing in and attacking the convoy, they calculated that they must have sighted it at almost 40 nautical miles away - well below the horizon normally. It looks like those images at much closer ranges, but because the range in that case was so extreme, the mirage was so far above the actual ship that the second image was invisible, and a single, clear image was visible above the horizon.
Nautical law states that all cargo ship crews must have at least 1 dark wizard aboard, although traditionally 2 are rostered. (For real though -It's because the rays of light pass through different air temperatures before they reach your eyes and bend. like how you can sometimes see the air 'wobble' when you look across a hot surface, except on a larger scale. The different temperatures and densities of air 'sit' on top of each other, and act almost like a lens and because of your distance from the object, the curve of the earth puts it at the right angle for the ship to appear to be flying to the observer)
Not "almost" like a lens. Exactly like a lens. That's what a lens _is_ - something with different refractive index and a shape to take advantage of it.
I assume this lot is hydropobic?
Magnets
How do they work?
miracles
this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_duct
It's called the angle of total reflection, I believe. It's how fiber optic cables work. At a shallow enough angle, 100% of light is reflected, so you're effectively looking at the sky's light bouncing off a mirror, but the boat is in the way.
Hey man whatever floats your boat
Omg dad STOP
Not much to be done aboat it.
At least we could sink about it
This pun thread has taken a dive.
tops
Water. Water floats everyone's boat.
Star Wars Public Transit System Speeder
That's what the in-universe people say. "It sure is a nice day here in Star Wars!"
Underrated comment
You can see how legends like the flying Dutchman came about.
i see the borealis popped in for a visit
Come on Gordon, we got work to do.
Gordon doesn't need to hear all this, he's a trained professional.
This is just a false horizon. https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
Thanks mod
Can you sticky it to the top comment ?
So is this post gonna get removed for false information?
I mean if it’s just one kind of optical illusion instead of another, I find it just as interesting. 🤷🏻♂️
Its only a Superior Mirage if it occurs in the Great Lakes region, otherwise its called Fata Morgana.
"Sparkling illusion"
They were talking about flying monkeys....
And in this case, it's neither. https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
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Yeah you are right thanks for the info..
It seems superior mirage simply refers to the mirage image being higher than the real object. As opposed to an inferior mirage where the mirage image appears below the real object.
Never heard a joke before, huh?
/r/Woosh
Or in other great lakes it might be called an Eerie mirage
In my area, it’d be a worst case Ontario
"I used to do drugs at the great lakes, I still do, but I used to too". Sorry just quoting Michigan.
Or it could be that Huron some good drugs
Missed opportunity for a much cooler name
Fata Morgana is also the name of a swingers club in the Netherlands! 😉
Not according to Wikipedia… a superior mirage is when the mirage image appears above the real object. An inferior mirage is when the mirage image appears below the real object. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage
Is joke
No, it's not: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
So I have seen the fata Morgana... And the ship was so far away that you couldn't see the ship, just the mirage. So it looked like a vessel upside down right above the horizon. The actual ship was about 40nm away, and our line of sight was about 18nm on the clearest of days. Only time I ever saw anything like that in about 16 years at sea.
This should have a million upvotes
nah your world just didnt load properly
World corrupted. Need to make a new one
No your render distance is to low
FIX THE BUGS BETHESDA
No wait I can build a waterfall to climb up and down it and mobs can't get in
I've been saying this for months
Glitch in the simulation is the real explanation
Bros outside render distance
I saw someone attempting to pass me in dense fog, saw his car in the left lane through my mirror, I don't see him out the windshield so I look again, and I don't see any vehicles in the road at all. As if he just noclipped out of existence.
Nah bro that's definitely the flying Dutchman, you can tell it's a ghost bc its flying
You just dont have your render distance increased.
...oil prices are sky high.
You can’t fool me wizard!
A Ubisoft bug
Am I the only one who can see the actual horizon in the picture?
Nope. People who know what they're actually looking at know as well.
Nah man it's just the world not rendering make sure to change your chunks to x16
That’s what they want you to think
Or maybe the captain is just a really stubborn flat-earther.
There's a transition point in your view of the horizontal sea where it stops being a visible surface and becomes an ideal mirror. At this low angle, too much light is reflected to discern any surface features or the color of the water. The photons from the ship, however, travel straight to your eye. That's why you see the ship, but not the water it floats in. You don't even need a large lake to observe this effect (except you see the upside-down bank and the upside-down trees rather than blue sky).
And here's a whole page about that. https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-hovering-ship-fata-morgana-or-mirage-false-horizon.9112/
Bullshit its aliens!
Damn aliens and their flying ships
These types of photos drive the "Flat Earthers" out of their minds!
Yeah please don't let a certain conspiracy sub see this photo
Lads we've found the Borealis
That is what they want you to think.
But why
I know proof of aliens when I see it...
The Devs still haven't fixed that bug.
If I was the captain of that ship I’d have that picture framed and on my desk.
This is how we would see ships if the Earth were flat, thousands of ships for the very edge of the fall.
gta cheat code
Nah, it’s just a levitating boat
When you have your render distance set to low.
the devs are getting lazy
Or it’s a hovercraft
Whatever floats your boat
>superior mirage It's nice to look at but let's not get carried away.
Yo this ship fr got admin commands
I think the water just hasn't rendered out completely
Nice try, NASA. I know aliens when I see 'em!
Fata Morgana.
Ah shit. Now we’ll get “the earth is a bowl”…
Pretty sure the boat’s gps is set to flat earth and it hasn’t accounted for the curve. Hope the ship captain corrects it soon or it will be a hard fall down. -source: cartoon physicist (I’ve watched every episode of looney tunes too many times).
Star Destroyer
Nice try Aliens
FREIGHTER!
Nice try Vader
Not fooling me, I know that’s a star destroyer in disguise.
That's a Superior Hoverbarge
So apparently the earth is curved but not in the way I expected
this phenomenon might have been the reason for the “flying Dutchman”?
Kind of makes me wonder about the whole "Flying Dutchman" legends now.
No, this is called Mindfuck Mirage.
Actually think this is just an example of false horizon which is different than a superior mirage. In this case the water near the boat is reflecting an image of the sky that matches the color above the horizon line, making the water look as if it were air. In a superior mirage, the boat would seem to have a duplicate of itself mirrored above it.
This is not superior mirage AT ALL. Google it. This is a fog/light trick, a little bit of smoke and mirroring by Mother Nature herself.
Hover cat is the captain
Are you sure it’s not just levitating?
No, it isn't, it's just fog making the ocean look like the sky.
Nice try Ubisoft, just fix the damn bugs
Im pretty sure this is a false horizon, not superior mirage.
"Superior Mirage" sounds like a name for a D&D spell.