Mystery Island @bobshafto

Bobby Shafto | Mystery Island @bobshafto | Uploaded January 2024 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
What appears to be a separate island to the east of Catalina Island when viewed from a height of about 1100 ft and a distance of about 90-100 miles, is actually two regions of Catalina Island.

On the day this photo was taken, elevations below around 1300 feet at a distance of 90 miles (the Silver Peak area at the NW end of the island, and elevations below around 1600 feet at a distance of 100 miles (the Mt Orizaba region of the island), are not visible, creating the appearance of 2 separate islands.

$Globe vs Flat Round 2 On a globe, wed call this looming. Still, the tip of the islands southern spur remains closer to the no-refraction globe geometry calculation than to flat earth geometry. But its close. Had a serendipitous passage of the USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10), which had been moored at the North Island Air Station ammo pier most of the morning. I began recording when it pulled out of the way and gave me a clear view to my reference pier. Despite the looming, it still demonstrated how objects that are known to be above horizontal will cross over eye-level and appear below horizontal with distance. This is a characteristic of surface curvature. For this to happen on a flat surface, light would need to be bending upward, which is opposite of the density gradient that produces this looming/upward displacement observation. The compression is due to objects near horizontal being displaced upward more than objects at a higher angle elevation. This boats and ships at shallow angles appear like slivers. The island, itself, is compressed and misshapen. Round 3 video is pending release and will show even more extreme looming/distortion than on this day. This was on Thursday, February 9th. Round 3 will cover Friday, February 10th. Stay tuned. For now, globe leads flat 2-0.$

A Long Video for Scrolling Through and Analyzing

Waning Crescent: Last Rise Before New Moon

Channel Buoy Alignment Observation #2 (see description)