Question 2: Answered @bobshafto

Bobby Shafto | Question 2: Answered @bobshafto | Uploaded February 2024 | Updated October 2024, 11 hours ago.
Earlier, published a request for help to identify a mystery element of a passing container ship, captured by @pablosdog2808 on December 22nd, 2023. youtube.com/watch?v=mTZ2Sddfrzg

Today, with @bflat1894 's help, that ship was identified as the CMA CGM Marco Polo that had departed the port of Long Beach earlier that day and transited the shipping lane, leeward to the Channel Islands. Estimated distance from Pablosdog's location, 45-ft on the bluffs of UCSB Campus Point about 23-24 miles, quartering aspect: youtube.com/watch?v=IDTkOfRadJc

The mystery object turns out to be the port tip of a wind screen recently installed on the bow. Images of the ship from 2022 and earlier do not show the bow screen.

Also noteworthy: the dual funnel arrangement must have been modified at some point, since earlier pictures of the vessel show a single, central structure.

Now, with this information, we can better estimate dimensions of the ship and deduce how much appears to be obscured from view.

Quicklook: Level Sighting from UCSB Campus Point

$Globe v Flat Round 5 Round 5 on February 15th. The 33-m spur on North Coronado Island was not visible all day. For context, see previous videos. A small degree of inferior mirage is evident where the distant island appears to meet the horizon. There doesnt appear to be any mirage effect of the ship at 7 miles. During this clip, the USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49) was recorded leaving San Diego harbor. In the first segment, with the ship passing Ballast Point at a distance of almost 2 miles, the flight deck (30+ feet above the water) appears above my cameras ~20 ft height. But as the ship passes safe water buoy about 7 miles away, the flight deck appears lower than the horizontal sight line from my 20-ft observation point. This is just another indication the water surface is not flat but is convex. (The other possibility for both the flight deck appearing to drop below horizontal and the distant island appearing to be eclipsed by the horizon is that the surface is flat but light is curving upward; opposite the direction atmospheric refraction would be producing displacement. Either way - surface convexity or upward bending light - something has to be curving. Its not perspective.)$

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