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Author Topic: Sun at sunset vs mountain miles away  (Read 9049 times)

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Online Gray2023

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Sun at sunset vs mountain miles away
« on: September 04, 2024, 02:25:13 PM »
After reading and pondering for awhile, I was wondering why at sunset the sun is magnified, but the same would not apply to a mountain in the distance.  It seems like an inconsistent thought process.

I can look at the sun on the edge of the horizon and it looks bigger to me than when it is straight overhead. FE people say it is because the sun is magnified by the atmosphere. The atmosphere makes the sun cooler and easier to look at.

Now lets take the picture in the World Records book that was of a mountain 273 miles away.  Could the same magnification help us see a mountain that we can't normally see?  

Do we really understand what atmosphere does over long distances?

Just something for others to ponder as well.  I haven't made any decisive conclusions.
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Offline Quo vadis Domine

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Re: Sun at sunset vs mountain miles away
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2024, 02:53:39 PM »
Quote from: Gray2023 on September 04, 2024, 02:25:13 PM
After reading and pondering for awhile, I was wondering why at sunset the sun is magnified, but the same would not apply to a mountain in the distance.  It seems like an inconsistent thought process.

I can look at the sun on the edge of the horizon and it looks bigger to me than when it is straight overhead. FE people say it is because the sun is magnified by the atmosphere. The atmosphere makes the sun cooler and easier to look at.

Now lets take the picture in the World Records book that was of a mountain 273 miles away.  Could the same magnification help us see a mountain that we can't normally see? 

Do we really understand what atmosphere does over long distances?

Just something for others to ponder as well.  I haven't made any decisive conclusions.


The conventional explanation is that when the Sun is in the sky there is nothing near it to measure it’s size by, but when it rises or sets on the horizon it has mountains, trees, water, and buildings that are nearby thus it looks bigger. It’s an optical illusion basically.
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Offline Ladislaus

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Re: Sun at sunset vs mountain miles away
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2024, 03:00:01 PM »
Quote from: Gray2023 on September 04, 2024, 02:25:13 PM
After reading and pondering for awhile, I was wondering why at sunset the sun is magnified, but the same would not apply to a mountain in the distance.  

Who says it isn't or wouldn't be?  Difference is that the mountain isn't moving so you can't observe a "change" in size.
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Offline Ladislaus

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Re: Sun at sunset vs mountain miles away
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2024, 03:01:57 PM »
Quote from: Gray2023 on September 04, 2024, 02:25:13 PM
Now lets take the picture in the World Records book that was of a mountain 273 miles away.  Could the same magnification help us see a mountain that we can't normally see? 

Magnification by itself wouldn't suffice to explain why we can see it, since the core problem is that it should be hidden behind/around earth curvature.  You would need some mechanism to bend the light around the curve, a mechanism most commonly stated to be refraction.  You also wouldn't really need the atmosphere's magnification, since you could use some magnifying optics ... telescope, binoculars, camera zoom, etc.
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Online Gray2023

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Re: Sun at sunset vs mountain miles away
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2024, 03:02:57 PM »
Quote from: Quo vadis Domine on September 04, 2024, 02:53:39 PM

The conventional explanation is that when the Sun is in the sky there is nothing near it to measure it’s size by, but when it rises or sets on the horizon it has mountains, trees, water, and buildings that are nearby thus it looks bigger. It’s an optical illusion basically.
But we can measure it against planes or birds in the air.  Maybe I will have to take a picture of the birds and sun when over my head and another at sunset to see if there is any difference.
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