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Mysterious Nantucket Horizon

So I spent nearly an hour letting my imagination run wild as to what this mysterious box floating over the horizon was off the coast of Nantucket. It was comple...
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So I spent nearly an hour letting my imagination run wild as to what this mysterious box floating over the horizon was off the coast of Nantucket. It was completely immobile during the entire sunset, and even as the light faded, it was clearly visible in the distance. Knowing full well there must be some kind of scientific explanation for what I was seeing, I still felt like a giddy kid again imagining what was on the other side of this portal that opened up in the sky! Turns out what I was looking at was a Superior Mirage of a house on Muskeget Island about six and a half miles away. The conditions needed to produce this kind of mirage (superior mirage) requires a thick layer of cold air lying above the surface of the sea with warmer air above it. The light rays from the structure which travel upward and strike the surface of separation between the cold and warm air at an angle greater than the critical angle are reflected back into my eyes in the distance. In this way I was able to see the house mirrored in the sky.
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Jun, 2015

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bhpPhotography

Mysterious Nantucket Horizon

So I spent nearly an hour letting my imagination run wild as to what this mysterious box floating over the horizon was off the coast of Nantucket. It was comple... Read more

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So I spent nearly an hour letting my imagination run wild as to what this mysterious box floating over the horizon was off the coast of Nantucket. It was comple...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.