I know I've mentioned this elsewhere recently, but since no one ever responded [?] I'll break it out to its own thread.
The picture:
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You must have missed my reply, no?
The sun is wider near where it touches the water.
If you complete the curve under the horizon line the sun is not a circle but an oval.
See how it appears to have a flattish top and almost pointed sides?
The same sun at the same time, viewed from further west, say two time zones, is perfectly circular, higher in the sky.
But if you go there (2 hours further west) and wait, you'll soon see this same thing happen.
The sun will appear there the same way, getting wider as it appears to touch the horizon.
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Furthermore, the place where the water's horizon meets, the edge of the sun appears to spill out.
The sun appears to be melting onto the top of the water like wax.
But we know that isn't really happening either.
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Add to that, the perimeter of the sun appears to be ripply or fuzzy.
With greater magnification you can see this effect more dramatically.
The sun in this position over the horizon at sea appears to have a wavy edge, especially at the bottom.
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Therefore, there are several illusions going on which we can test to see they are only appearing to happen.
They are not REALLY happening.
What is happening is the light we see, the image of the sun, is being slightly distorted.
The sun is still in the same place as it should be but its appearance has been tweaked.
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One test we can perform is to go higher up in the atmosphere to see how the sun looks up there.
From very high altitude the sun never has these three distortions going on like this.
Consequently we can expect what the cause of this triple condition is due to.
What is it that the sun's light is going through here, but not when we see it from much higher, such as from 14,500 ft. elev.?
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