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Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
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I am suprised this kind of thing hasn't got its own thread (or I've missed it) as cities in the air come up occasionally:

Mysterious mirage appears off coast in Guangdong

Just recently it was discovered that in the maritime waters of China’s Guangdong Province, a mirage was spotted. It can be seen clearly as a small islet with a number of mountains and even a structure that looks like a castle. As it mysteriously appeared, it also left the same way only to have appeared for a bit of over three hours.

Gazing out into the sea from the fishing village, far, far out in the deep blue sea is this rarely seen mirage. It’s getting dimmer by the minute and the mirage is starting to blur out of sight. But a small islet can still be clearly seen where there are a number of mountains and according to villagers, the mirage was seen for as long as three hours.

When it first appeared, a castle-like structure could be seen nestled on top of the mountains with a city wall. But as the sun was setting, the mirage faded with only faint lines discernable.

One scholar said that images seen in the air generally appear inverted, and the phenomenon is due to the reflection of light through two layers of air of different temperature. Light is reflected from far away objects and refracted into your eyes. Shen Quan Town of Guangdong is where mirages are mostly spotted. But this time, it’s these images that were captured to leave a most unforgettable experience for the people who encountered it.

Source
Link is dead. The MIA news story (quoted in full above) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050326085356/http://www.ettoday.com/2005/03/11/11195-1763598.htm
 
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mirages, i wonder if theyre possibly "windows" or time slips into the past/future as such?
 
Supposedly ' sensitives ' have seen , off Lands End, cities and fertile countryside, ' Lyonesse, '. Isn't there an example of somewhere in Alaska, where a city is seen? It's in one of my endless books. ' The Silent City of Alaska ' Apparently it is or was very clear.
 
Lethe said:
Isn't there an example of somewhere in Alaska, where a city is seen? It's in one of my endless books. ' The Silent City of Alaska ' Apparently it is or was very clear.

Charles Fort in New Lands describes how images of Bristol, UK, were reported over the skies of Alaska. There is also a photograph claimed to be of the image/mirage, taken in 1887. Native Alaskans had apparently regularly seen the image before white settlers came to the area and the image of Bristol was said to have been visible every year between the 21st of June and the 10th July.

I also like the idea suggested by Bob Rickard and John Michell (Phenomena, 1977: p63) that mirages or rather cities seen in the sky may have been the originator of:

"...the tradition of an enchanted land or island of the dead, described so frequently in Celtic folklore and the mythologies of many other races, is partly derived from actual visions of such a landscape. Its regular appearance at certain times may have given the old Druid priests the opportunity of predicting a vision of paradise, or of crediting themselves with its invocation."
 
There's a legend connected, I think, with Worms head , in Wales, if you stand on a particlar patch of grass, and look out you can see ' fairyland ' whatever name you want to call it, and if you run and get a Bible, so say, and come back before it vanishes, you will be able to enter it. Of course there were lands off the Welsh coast , I think at Amroth you can see pertrified tree stumps if the tide is low, and there the legend of Cantref y Gwaelod, (sp) which was drowned by the sea, one of the only survivors being Taliesin.
 
Anyone ever taken pictures of these mirages? Or any mirages at all?
 
Here's a mirage picture from antarctica!

coolantarctica.com/gallery/s ... mirage.jpg
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://www.coolantarctica.com/gallery/scenic/weather4.jpg

Here's the photo:


weather4.jpg

(Photo credit - Paul Ward / coolantarctica.com)

Here's the webpage explaining it:
https://www.coolantarctica.com/gallery/scenic/weather4.php


Image taken from this website: coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/antarctica environment/weather.htm

Here's a website about Bristol, Wisconsin. They claim it's Bristol Wisconsin which is being miraged. There's even a picture of the so called mirage of Bristol.

members.lycos.co.uk/brisray/brisusa/brisusa7.htm
Link is dead (as is the website). See later post for salvaged content.



edited by TheQuixote: turned image into link
 
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Anyone ever taken pictures of these mirages? Or any mirages at all?

You can do no better than get a copy of Werner Herzog's film "Fata Morgana." Great shots of "erotic" desert sanddunes, a car that scurries about like a beetle, or a beetle that scurries about like a car AND the strangest musical combo you'll ever come across - a pimp on drums and vocals and a madam on piano - genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Vardoger said:
Here's a website about Bristol, Wisconsin. They claim it's Bristol Wisconsin which is being miraged. There's even a picture of the so called mirage of Bristol.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/brisray/brisusa/brisusa7.htm

That site states:

Here's a strange story, it concerns Bristol and Alaska. I found it in a book called "Phenomena - A Book of Wonders" by J Michell and R J M Rickard and published by Thames & Hudson Ltd. It is probably a hoax, but I'll put the story here for the sake of completeness.

They have misread or misunderstood the chapter* they are quoting as the book clearly states it is Bristol as in England.

*For reference it is Cities and islands in the sky, p62-63
 
Byron Cac said:
...the strangest musical combo you'll ever come across - a pimp on drums and vocals and a madam on piano - genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It wasn't Ravenstone, by any chance, was it?
 
When I lived in Qatar, we sometimes used to go out into the desert areas and you could sometimes see a pretty good mirage of the city of Doha (the capital) over the dunes.

Carole
 
Byron Cac wrote:
...the strangest musical combo you'll ever come across - a pimp on drums and vocals and a madam on piano - genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the Cad wrote

It wasn't Ravenstone, by any chance, was it?

If Ravenstone was running a Tenerife brothel in about 1970 then YES!
 
Rare Mirage Lasts for 4 Hours off East China Shore

2006-05-07 19:57:23, Xinhua

Mists rising on the shore created an image of a city, with modern high-rise buildings, broad city streets and bustling cars as well as crowds of people all clearly visible.

The city of Penglai had been soaked by two days of rain before the rare weather phenomenon occurred.

The mirage took place during the week-long Labor Day holiday. The small city received over 30,000 tourists on Sunday.

Experts said that many mirages have been recorded in Penglai, on the tip of Shandong Peninsula, throughout history, which made it known as a dwelling place of the gods.

They explained that a mirage is formed when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the temperature of sea water, which refracts rays of sunlight to create reflections of the landscape in the sky.
© Copyright by CRIENGLISH.com, 1998-2006.

The first photo in the linked article is by far the best 'city in the sky' mirage picture I've seen :shock:

The link given above is dead. A set of photos illustrating this 2006 mirage at Penglai can be accessed at the China Daily website:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2006-05/08/content_583947.htm
 
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I wonder if they have found out which city is being miraged?
 
I wonder if the people in whatever city the mirage was of would see a mirage of Penglai at the same time, assuming they were looking in the correct direction?
Kind of how if you look at someone in a mirror and you can see their eyes, you know that they can also see yours.

If the reflected light from the mystery city was refracted so that it could be seen from Penglai, doesn't it stand to reason that the reflected light of Pengali would also follow the same path back?
 
Scientists: Fifty-Mile 'Long View' Across Lake Erie Theoretically Possible

CLEVELAND — Scientists say it's a mirage, but others swear that when the weather is right, Clevelanders can see across Lake Erie and spot Canadian trees and buildings 50 miles away.

Eyewitness accounts have long been part of the city's history.

"The whole sweep of the Canadian shore stood out as if less than three miles away," a story in The Plain Dealer proclaimed in 1906. "The distant points across the lake stood out for nearly an hour and then faded away."

"I can see how this could be possible," said Lawrence Krauss, chairman of the physics department at Case Western Reserve University.

Krauss and Joe Prahl, chairman of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at Case, said mirages can occur during an atmospheric inversion, in which a layer of cold air blankets the lake, topped by layers of increasingly warm air.

When this happens, it can cause the light that filters through these layers from across the lake to bend, forming a lens that can create the illusion of distant objects.

The scientists said the air has to be extremely calm for the mirage to appear. If the wind blows, it distorts or dissolves the image.

Prahl and Krauss said such a mirage is rare. But Tom Schmidlin, a meteorologist in the geography department at Kent State University, said it's hardly unheard-of.

"It's not terribly unusual. Sailors are always exposed to this kind of thing," he said.

Prahl, who regularly sails his 30-foot sloop Seabird from Cleveland to Canada, has never seen it.

But Bob Boughner, a reporter for the Chatham Daily News in Ontario, said he's seen Cleveland from across Lake Erie twice, the first time four summers ago while driving along a road near the lake. He saw it again two summer ago while driving along the same road.

All of a sudden, there was Cleveland, just off the Canadian shore, as if it were just across a river, he said.

"I happened to look across the lake and, geez, I couldn't believe the sight," he said. "I could see the cars and the stoplights. I could even make out the different colors of the vehicles. It lasted a good two or three minutes."

Boughner said he remembers his aunt Melba Bates, who lived all her life on Lake Erie and recently died in her late 90s, talking about being able to see Cleveland, but he didn't believe her.

"I thought she was making up stories," he said. "But sure enough, I could see the same damned thing. When it shows up, it looks like you can touch it."

foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206349,00.html
Link is dead. The MIA webpage (quoted in full above) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070523015206/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206349,00.html
 
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In Hamburg next to the modern art gallery there is a large granite platform. In the 30-degree heat it created nice mirages:

i39.photobucket.com/albums/e182/uair01/mirage01.jpg
i39.photobucket.com/albums/e182/uair01/mirage02.jpg


Links are dead. No archived version found.
 
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WhistlingJack said:
Rare Mirage Lasts for 4 Hours off East China Shore

2006-05-07 19:57:23, Xinhua

Mists rising on the shore created an image of a city, with modern high-rise buildings, broad city streets and bustling cars as well as crowds of people all clearly visible.

The city of Penglai had been soaked by two days of rain before the rare weather phenomenon occurred.

The mirage took place during the week-long Labor Day holiday. The small city received over 30,000 tourists on Sunday.

Experts said that many mirages have been recorded in Penglai, on the tip of Shandong Peninsula, throughout history, which made it known as a dwelling place of the gods.

They explained that a mirage is formed when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the temperature of sea water, which refracts rays of sunlight to create reflections of the landscape in the sky.


© Copyright by CRIENGLISH.com, 1998-2006.

The first photo in the linked article is by far the best 'city in the sky' mirage picture I've seen :shock:

en.chinabroadcast.cn/mmsource/im ... seasea.jpg
The link given above is dead. A set of photos illustrating this 2006 mirage at Penglai can be accessed at the China Daily website:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2006-05/08/content_583947.htm


Surely that's 'shopped! Isn't it?


edited by TheQuixote: turned image into link
 
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· 1848: Extraordinary Phenomenon
· Author: Daniel Guenther |
· Date: 05-05-2006 |
· Posted in: de.alt.ufo |
· Show original
http://www.gatago.com/de/alt/ufo/15722098.html

1848 09 13 Times, The (UK)


Extraordinary Phenomenon. — We have received
a circumstantial description of an extraordinary appearance
in the heavens which, on the morning of Saturday
last, was witnessed by two men who were out in a fishing
boat off Quigley's Point, in Lough Foyle. At a former
period this strange phenomenon, for which the known laws
of optics account only imperfectly, would have been regarded
as prophetic of national destinies; but the Fata Morgana of
Italy, and the singular appearances frequently witnessed
in the high Arctic latitudes, as well as around some parts of
the Antrim coast, demonstrate the essential reference of all
these optical wonders to some natural law, which science has
yet thoroughly to investigate. From the character of the
men to whom, in the present case, we allude, not the
slightest doubt can be entertained in regard to the fidelity
of their statement, which is, in substance, the following,
namely: — That while on Saturday morning last, about
2 o'clock, they were in a boat fishing, off Quigley's
Point, they observed a phenomenon of a very strange
description. At the hour we have mentioned the
sky was of a more than ordinary dark and lurid aspect,
so much so that the men were apprehensive that there
would be a heavy fall of rain, when almost instantaneously
the clouds to the westward parted, and an
opening, as it were, of a reddish hue became visible, to which
their attention was directed. Then there appeared in the
heavens a regiment of men in uniform; and so minute was
the representation that the dresses of the officers could be
easily distinguished from those of the men. This passed
away in a panoramic manner, and was quickly succeeded by
the view of two large three-masted vessels of war under full
sail, which traversed the same space as their predecessors on
the scene, and at length they faded from the sight. The
mysterious vision was not, however, yet completed; for
their wondering eyes now beheld the appearance of two
human forms, male and female, standing with their faces
towards each other, as if engaged in conversation; and so
vivid was the outline of these figures that they distinguished
the male from the female, the former being apparently
clothed in a frock coat. This aerial personation of humanity
occupied about the same space of time as the two first mentioned.
This most bewildering scene was closed by the
forms of a swan and a peahen moving across and disappearing;
after which the sky assumed the sombre hue which it
wore previous to this strange illusion. Our informant
stated that one of the men who witnessed this scene was
filled with the greatest terror during its continuance.—
Derry Sentinel.
 
1. Inferior mirage: So called because the inverted image is below the erect one. This is the familiar hot-road mirage seen every sunny day on smooth paving.

Caused by the thin layer of hot air below eye level, at the surface.


2. Superior mirage: Here the inverted image is above the erect one. Caused by a layer of hot air not far overhead (a "thermal inversion".)

Like the inferior mirage, this looks much like a simple reflection. Astronomical objects cannot appear in a simple superior mirage.


Three-image mirages: An inverted image lies between two erect ones. The top image is often strongly compressed.

These purely refractive phenomena are also caused by inversion layers; they are of at least two kinds:



3. The “mock mirage” Caused by looking down into an inversion below eye level, and then (thanks to the curvature of the Earth) out through it again beyond the horizon.

The miraged objects may be about the same height above sea level as the eye, or may be considerably higher. (Cf. the simulations.)



4. Wegener's “late mirage” Caused by looking up through an inversion above the observer. The miraged objects are always higher than eye level (e.g., distant mountains; astronomical objects).

A true superior mirage of objects below the inversion may also be present, if the inversion is strong enough.
Mirages of higher multiplicity:

There are also distinct 5-image mirages. These have not been analyzed; they are certainly associated with strong thermal inversions, but the optical details are obscure.

Multiple quasi-reflections at an inversion may be involved; cf. the simulations — e.g., here and here.
Complex mirages:

5. The Fata Morgana is the general name for these; but the phenomena are so varied that two or more mirage types must really be involved.

The image is marked by repeated vertical and horizontal features, due to repeated alternations of erect and inverted images of some object.

Often the mirage shows considerable internal motion, producing an illusion that people or animals appear in the scene.

Almost certainly, strong inversion layers are responsible; but the detailed explanation of these rare displays has yet to be found.


Other uses of the term “mirage”: Sometimes, you will come across the term “lateral mirage,” which is used in two senses.

The first is a supposed sideways displacement of a miraged image, often by many degrees along the horizon.

Such displacements are physically impossible; refraction is almost entirely in the vertical direction.

(The largest measured refractive displacements in the horizontal direction are a few seconds of arc, dozens of times too small to be seen by the naked eye.)

Reports of large lateral displacements are the result of mis-identifications. (For example, a distant mountain that is normally hidden by closer ones may become visible by looming.

As many mountains in any small region have similar shapes, the unfamiliar object is often incorrectly “identified” as a strongly displaced image of some familiar feature of the normal landscape.)

A more legitimate use of the term refers to mirages seen on sunlit walls. However, these mirages are simply the familiar inferior (hot-surface) mirage, turned through 90°.

In this case, to avoid confusion with the erroneous reports mentioned above, I would prefer the term “mural mirage” to be used instead of “lateral mirage.”

Of course, “mirage” is often used metaphorically, to denote a false hope like that of the thirsty traveler in the desert, who imagines that water lies in the distance on seeing an inferior mirage.

If you search for the word “mirage” on the Web, most of the pages you turn up contain such rhetorical uses of the term, and do not refer to real mirages.



Other refraction phenomena: Besides mirages, there are other phenomena due to atmospheric refraction. These include looming (the appearance of objects normally hidden by the horizon) and towering (objects greatly elongated vertically), and the opposite effects, sinking and stooping.

These, together with mirages and the displacements of astronomical and terrestrial objects from their geometric directions that are serious problems for astronomers and surveyors, are all classified as "refraction phenomena".

Two-image mirages: these are the classical types


Article website : http://aty.sdsu.edu/mirages/mirtypes.html
 
I am currently sitting on a cross-channel ferry heading to France. Went up on deck 20 minutes ago and spotted a ship on the horizon (probably the sister ship to the one I'm on) heading in the opposite direction. It looked strangely as if it were hovering above the sea. Took this photo using my smartphone at extreme zoom. Not sure that it quite does the effect justice, but thought it was worth posting here. Weather conditions are very sunny and remarkably warm for this late in the year; 25 degrees C.

PSX_20181005_114601.jpg
 
If it was vertical, I'd say it was one of those new-fangled light-bulbs, again.

Maybe there are giant, new-fangled light-bulbs that live under the waves and hope to really surprise a Victorian captain and his crew, unaware that their tiny bretheren have been caught and forced into domestic slavery! :actw:
 
Here's an item reported in 1894 by Scientific American ...
Mirage Seen from Buffalo Is Toronto in the Sky

"The citizens of Buffalo, N.Y., were treated to a remarkable mirage between 10 and 11 o’clock on the morning of August 16. It was the city of Toronto, with its harbor and small island to the south of the city. Toronto is fifty-six miles from Buffalo, but the church spires could be counted with the greatest ease. This mirage is what is known as a mirage of the third order. That is, the object looms up far above the real level and not inverted, as is the case with mirages of the first and second class, but appearing like a perfect landscape far away in the sky.”

—Scientific American, August 1894

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mirage-seen-from-buffalo-is-toronto-in-the-sky/
 
Video of an alleged cityscape mirage over Jinan, China.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...Harry-Potters-school-appear-Chinese-city.html

Is that Hogwarts floating in the sky? Incredible moment Harry Potter's school seems to appear above Chinese city

Footage of the likeness of a Hogwarts-style castle appearing to float in the sky has caused a sensation on Chinese social media.

The ghostly image of what looked like Harry Potter's school was spotted hovering above modern buildings in Shandong Province in eastern China this morning, according to accounts.

Local media reported that the sight was a natural phenomenon called a mirage.

33051856-8722085-image-m-43_1599822898309.jpg


(And for the credulous, here's a video by Captain Disillusion debunking this kind of video and explaining how it's done)
 
Link to the BBC story.

The photo speaks for itself. A known phenomenon of a mirage caused by atmospheric conditions.

Variations of this type of mirage have been cited as "evidence" that the Earth is flat. Conceivably they could also explain various sightings of "angelic hosts" and "shining cities in the sky". This particular and spectacular example is a very clear photo taken in pretty much ideal conditions.

Once I discovered there was already a post on marine mirages, which I had missed on my quick search before posting, I asked for it to be moved. A couple of the posts below were written before the move which is why they seem out of context.

_117387798_apex_hovering_ship_illusion_03.jpg
 
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Gorgeous! :cool:

We may have a thread on marine mirages. This is the best one I've seen.
 
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