Ogdred Weary
Drag(on) Queen
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- Apr 2, 2012
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Oh yeah a "mirage", clearly aliens moving the ship before it sails off the edge of the world.
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.
Bristol, Alaska - The Phantom City
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.
For some reason the sky above Alaska seems strangely receptive to images of Bristol. Charles Hoy Fort in a book " New Lands" mentions reports that a mirage of Bristol appeared in the sky several times. Apparently these sightings are more common between 21st June and 10th July. Fort also reports that the local Indians were seeing these images before white settlement.
In 1887 the pioneer, Willoughby, saw and photographed this aerial city. Some people have claimed that this photograph was, in fact, a picture of the real city of Bristol and not some spectral phantom.
On 31st October 1889, the New York Times an article appeared saying that Mr L B French reported seeing quite plainly in the sky near Mount Fairweather "houses, well defined streets and trees. Here and there rose tall spires over huge buildings, which appeared to be ancient mosques or cathedrals ... It did not look like a modern city - more like an ancient European city".
Fort quotes another correspondant from the Yukon who in June 1897 had seen a great city in the sky. Members of his party speculated on whether it most resembled Toronto, Montreal or Peking, but concluded that it was more like "some ancient city in the past".
I did a search on the net for Charles Hoy Fort, I didn't think I'd find anything, but found the complete text for New Lands, the page that mentions Bristol is Part 2, Chapter 19.
This isn't a mirage. It's an illusion, though - a false horizonLink 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.
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Unfortunately, it's being passed around with a supernatural explanation or that it's a "mirage". Social media is a bummer as scientific explanations aren't as portable, clickable or shareable. And, people prefer the enchanted version.Extraordinary photo, and a fascinating reminder of just how oddly our eyes (and cameras) can perceive the temperature inversions of light waves.
I saw something similar to this a few weeks ago with some small offshore islands (not an infrequent occurrence at this time of year), but nowhere near as striking - just a thin bright line between the sea and the landmasses, making them appear to hover fractionally above the horizon.
This is a picture that will no doubt be reproduced for years to come as an example of optical illusions - feels somehow quite exciting to be around on 'Day One'.
Weird Bristol: The 1899 Alaska photo hoax that sensationally fooled the worldHere is the text about the mirage, along with an alleged photo of the incident / phenomenon ...
SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050321052410/http://members.lycos.co.uk/brisray/brisusa/brisusa7.htm
FULL STORY (With More Photos): https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/7192108/mind-bending-pics-optical-illusion/Mind-bending pics show ‘floating ships stacked on top of each other’ in bizarre optical illusion
TWO ships looked as though they were stacked on top of each other in a mind-bending optical illusion.
The vessels were captured floating in Selsey, West Sussex, and left land-dwellers stunned on Monday morning. ...
Wait, what? That was a hoax?Weird Bristol: The 1899 Alaska photo hoax that sensationally fooled the world
Victorian photo of Bristol caused a sensation because it was said to have been taken in Alaska
Eugene Byrne
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- 22:00, 29 MAY 2017
In the first of a new series of features delving into the stranger things in our past, Eugene Byrne investigates claims Bristol could have been photographed from Alaska
A Victorian photo of Bristol caused a sensation because it was said to have been taken in Alaska. In the 1880s, Alaska was still a very mysterious and mostly-unexplored place. Much of it still is.
The few travellers and explorers who had seen the Muir Glacier – which got its name from naturalist John Muir who had only visited it for the first time in 1879 – reported seeing mirages there.
Some claimed that a spectral "silent city" would sometimes appear in the sky above the glacier.
One possible explanation for this is that during temperature inversions, when warm air hangs over the cold ice, light from the ice is reflected back down, creating spires and other shapes out of the jagged contours. Witnesses are not, in fact, seeing a city, but reflected rock and ice formations that look like one.
Richard Willoughby, an American gold prospector and miner who had run off to Alaska (as much to get away from his wife and family as to seek his fortune, it seems), claimed in 1889 to have photographed this “Silent City.”
He speculated that it might be a reflection of a real city, perhaps in Russia, even though experts claimed that such a thing was impossible.
Willoughby was visited by an American journalist, Miner Bruce, who took a print and wrote the story up in the San Francisco Chronicle.
A Chronicle reader wrote in and identified the city in the picture as Bristol. And indeed it is; it was taken on Brandon Hill.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/history/weird-bristol-1899-alaska-photo-67558
Nope nope nope.Fata Morgana observed off the south east coast of Cyprus 23/06/21:
View attachment 41161
The Reddit thread where I saw this:
Wow, that's huge.I often see them. If they're just a little bit nearer they look like this.
I often see them. If they're just a little bit nearer they look like this.
FULL STORY: https://strangesounds.org/2021/08/m...cier-bay-national-park-and-reserve-video.htmlMysterious floating island hovers lake at Glacier Bay National Park and Reserve in Alaska
A ‘UFO mirage’ has been caught on camera hovering over water in a national park in Alaska.
The strange footage was captured on warm sunny day back in June at the Glacier Bay National Park and Reserve, but wasn’t revealed until now. ...
The weird dome-shaped object in the video is actually your brain being tricked into seeing a distorted version of an island.
The park posted the video to its Facebook page and explained that the mirage is called a “Fata Morgana”. ...
Like a nuke going off.Omega sunrise mirage over the Strait of Dover this morning.
Engels, who previously studied geography, cycled through possible explanations, including that a large piece of ice had improbably drifted down from Alaska, miraculously passing through narrow straits and dodging archipelagos.
But if an iceberg was in the area – especially one of that size – it would surely have made local news, she told herself.
The image soon went viral and Engels learned that the mysterious iceberg was really a mirage.
She was actually viewing the Cheam mountain range on the mainland of British Columbia, nearly 200km (124 miles) away – and beyond the horizon from where Engels was standing.
The illusion was caused by what is known as a “superior mirage” which is caused during a temperature inversion, when a band of warm air rests on a layer of cold air, bending light rays downwards.
Light from the setting sun was reflecting off the range and bending down, placing the range on the horizon. At a distance, the snow-covered peaks looked eerily similar to a towering iceberg.