
Fata Morgana in the Juan de Fuca Strait - dangerman
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2018/09/fata-morgana-in-the-juan-de-fuca-strait.html
======
leesec
Used to work in Alaska on boats and saw this many nights coming into Seward
harbor. It made the entire town (all small buildings) look like mid sized sky
scrapers of the same height, even across the horizon, and then it would fade
away.

~~~
kwhitefoot
Sounds a bit like a scene from the Hitchhiker's Guide:
[https://www.shmoop.com/hitchhikers-guide-to-the-
galaxy/chapt...](https://www.shmoop.com/hitchhikers-guide-to-the-
galaxy/chapter-9-summary.html)

------
Tor3
Nice that he could get a picture of it. I saw something similar (vertical
stretching) as a child, the family car was driving along a fjord when I
noticed a boat with two giant men standing in it. Then as we drove further the
image shifted and there was a tiny rowing boat out on the water, with two men
sitting.

My great-grandfather once saw a semi-mythical island settlement on the horizon
in the area where he used to fish (he was a fisherman). There are many stories
about that place. My great-grandfather understood what he saw though -- it was
a mirage of a real settlement, on an island much farther out. Too far out to
see normally, but conditions can sometimes show a mirage of it. And that's
where the mythical place and the stories came from.

------
mc32
Some people have postulated Fata Morgana might have led to the sinking of the
Titanic.[1] Obviously speculative, but apparently weather conditions, again,
it's speculated, at the time could have been favorable for such atmospheric
phenomenon.

[1][https://turcanin.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/fata-morgana-
the-m...](https://turcanin.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/fata-morgana-the-mirage-
that-sunk-the-titanic/)

------
burlesona
I had to follow a bunch of the links before I understood what this was. Very
interesting stuff!

This link was the most helpful:
[https://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz139.htm](https://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz139.htm)

------
walrus01
See also,

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_diffraction](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_diffraction)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_refraction](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_refraction)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_duct](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_duct)

------
xrd
Fascinating. Love the reference to Morgana from Arthurian legend.

