 During our sailing trip to Southeast Alaska last summer, we experienced a strange optical phenomenon, at least twice. Today, I learned that it's called a Fata Morgana. We saw it when sailing. We couldn't understand what was ahead and astern of us. The land was distorted, mountains and trees were stretched and/or compressed together, on occasion some would appear inverted. It is nice to finally put a name to this ^^ (Photo by PtrQs, CC BY-SA 4.0) 13 comments
 @rek soo cool! I’ve seen them in puddle size on roads in the summer. But never that huge. @jfroehlich It really messes with your head :). It makes it impossible to use the land as a reference when sailing. @jfroehlich It didn't because we were sailing in a channel. The sides weren't far away enough, it only affected what was really far ahead and far astern of us.  "The term Fata Morgana is the Italian translation of "Morgan the Fairy" (Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend). These mirages are often seen in the Italian Strait of Messina, and were described as fairy castles in the air or false land conjured by her magic." @rek @neauoire so it turns out that Fata Morgana is not in fact poetic crap. https://catscradle.neocities.org/chapter-39 |
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@rek Apparently it will sometimes make ships appear above the horizon, which is probably how legends of the Flying Dutchman got their start.