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Frank/Fred
I am not sure what happens at sea but I know though bitter experience that
things do sink below the horizon in desert environments. Many times in early
mornings I have set a course towards a distant mountain, which appears as a
bump on the horizon then as the day wears on it slowly disappears.

This is remarked on numerous times in the journals of Australian explores
that they could see things that were actually over the horizon. I read an
explanation of this phenomenon once but the answer now eludes me. I think it
is something to do with refraction and occurs in my experience most often at
dawn and dusk.

Kieran Kelly

-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On
Behalf Of Fred Hebard
Sent: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 9:19 AM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Re: Mirages, was: Refraction

Frank,

The star question has been covered to my satisfaction (at least to my
inexpert standards!).  But I also posed the earth-bound question along
with the star question.

I am specifically wondering whether a ship could ever appear to sink
below the horizon even though it actually was above it.  My
understanding is that normally ships appear higher than they really
are.

Thanks,

Fred

On Jul 13, 2004, at 6:00 PM, Frank Reed wrote:

> Fred H wrote:
>  "I am trying to get at the question of objects located on earth, or
> near, rather than stars."
>
>  Can you rephrase of give a practical example of what you're thinking
> of? I would say most everyone who responded so far assumed that you
> WERE asking about stars.
>
>  Frank R
>  [ ] Mystic, Connecticut
>  [X] Chicago, Illinois

   

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