... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Celestial mirages?Those mysterious giant blue arcs mentioned above have at least two explanations. The less-favored states that the arcs are formed when a spherical light pulse from a briefly flaring quasar encounters a plane of gas and dust. This matter scatters the light, making it visible to us as a huge arc. The preferred model employs gravitational lensing. Here, the arcs are simply distorted images -- mirages, if you want -- of distant galaxies. (Two of the many reports on this subject are: Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "The Giant Arcs Are Gravitational Mirages," Science, 238:1351, 1987; and Anonymous; "Giant Arcs: Light Echoes or Lensed Galaxies?" Sky and Telescope, 75:7 , 1988.) Comment. A bit of background: according to Einstein, the presence of matter can bend light rays, just as our atmosphere does when mirages are created by refraction. Gravitational mirages of celestial objects are thus predicted by Relativity. From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Edinburgh ufo a mirage?September 30, 1986. Edinburgh, Scotland. "Yvonne Westgarth looked out of a north-facing window of her house in south Edinburgh. She was amazed to see a white cylindrical object like a missile travelling westwards just above the roofs of houses opposite (as she thought). She called her husband who also saw the object. Their sketches of what they saw are shown in Fig. l. Although their descriptions differ slightly, they agree that the 'missile' had a black band around its centre. They watched the object for a period of between 0.5 min and 1.5 min (period uncertain). It was first seen almost due north and it disappeared in the west-northwest. No noise was heard." No one else reported seeing the object. A real missile was considered very unlikely. However, the object appeared in the direction of the glide path of the Edinburgh airport, where two aircraft had landed at about the time of the sighting. The witnesses were adamant that the UFO did not look at all like a plane; and that it was much higher in the sky than planes on normal glide paths, which were to be seen just above the horizon between the houses. S. Campbell, who investigated this event, suggests that the Westgarths saw an enlarged distorted mirage of a Boeing 757 landing at Edinburgh. The timing and direction were right ...

... Ice Crystals Anomalous Lunar Coronas Circumzenithal Arc and Black Band GEI OBSERVER-CENTERED PHENOMENA GEI1 Puzzling Features of the Brocken Specter GEI2 Heligenschein GEI3 Rotating Spokes about the Shadow of One's Head Sylvanshine Snow Sparkles GEL LOW-SUN PHENOMENA GEL1 Puzzling Features of the Green Flash GEL2 Anomalous Diverging Rays at Sunset and Sunrise GEL3 Color Phenomena and the Earth's Shadow on the Sky GEL4 Abnormal Refraction Phenomena with Astronomical Objects... GEL5 Anomalous Aspects of the Krakatoa Sunsets GEL6 The Alpine Glow... GEL7 Spectral Dispersion near the Sea's Surface GEL8 Low-Sun Landscape Fluorescence GEL9 Low-Sun Spectral Bows GEL10 Low-Sun Shadow Bands GEL11 The Second Purple Light GEL12 Moving Patches of Light on the Horizon Jumping Stars Post-Twilight Infrared Brightening of the Sky Extraordinary Sunsets GEM THE MAGIC OF MIRAGES GEM1 Fata Morganas GEM2 Telescopic Mirages GEM3 Lateral Mirages GEM4 Multiple Mirages GEM5 Mirages Sensitive to the Observer's Position GEM6 The Novaya Zemlya Effect GEM7 Illusions of a Flat Earth GEM8 Dynamic Mirages GEM9 Mirror or Reflection Mirages Double Moons Mock Mirages GER RADIO AND RADAR ANOMALIES GER1 Long-Delayed Radio Echos GER2 The Moon's Effect on Radio Propagation GER3 Thunderstorm Modification of Radio Propagation GER4 Stable Patterns of Electromagnetic Radiation GER5 Unidentified Radio Signals... GER6 The Humming Earth GER7 Polar Radio Blackouts GER8 Around-th e-World Transmission of High-Frequency Signals GER9 Periodic Fading of Satellite Radio Transmissions GER10 Sudden Disappearance of High Frequency Radio Transmissions GER11 Correlation of Radio Propagation Quality with Planetary Positions GER12 Earthquake-Induced Ionospheric Disturbances GER13 Easier Radio Transmission in One Direction than Its Reverse GER14 Radar Dot Angels GER15 ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Elliptical Halos Original drawing of the halo of Hissink, observed at Leiden. January 26, 1977. In the catalog Rare Halos, Mirages, Anomalous Rainbows, we list nine cases of elliptical halos. Such observations are anomalous becaouse the only wellexplained elliptical halo is formed when the lower and upper tangential arcs of a 22 halo join together. Possibly because of the absence of appropriate theory, R. White, in 1981, suggested that the observations recorded in GEH2 were only the consequences of observational error or inaccuracy in representation of the phenomenon. (This assertion is well-known to all anomalists!) Recently, however, several elliptical halos have graced the skies of Finland. We provide below a summary of these observations, as prepared by J. Hakuma ki and M. Pekkola. First, though, we express appreciation to Hakumaki and Pekkola for a paragraph headlined SOURCEBOOK PROJECT ANOMALIES, where in effect they vindicate the approach of the Project. We now quote from the summary of their article. "In December 1987 two Finnish amateur astronomers observed and photographed a peculiar vertically elliptical ring surrounding the moon. A literature study carried out soon after this first observation brought to light ten reported historical cases of this type of rare halo phenomenon. It was found out that the existence of these elliptical halos has been uncertain to date due to a lack of photographic evidence. One indication of this is that none of the major modern works on ...

... GMT, the master and third officer of the Rockhampton Star observed a vessel at a distance of 6 nautical miles. Its appearance was normal for that distance. At 12 n.m ., however, it was magnified four times over what it should have been for that distance. At 16 n.m ., the apparent magnification was eight. The interesting aspects of this phenomenon are: Increasing magnification with distance; and The magnified image was perfect in two dimensions and not distorted along the vertical axis as is usually the case in abnormal refraction. (White, A.H .; "Abnormal Refraction," Marine Observer, 52:80, 1982.) Comment. What kind of stable atmospheric lens can do this? Reference. Phenomena like that above are termed "telescopic mirages." These are cataloged at GEM2 in Rare Halos, Mirages. For a description of this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... orrange colour on the outside, merging into yellow, then to a bluish colour on the inside edge. See sketch. Unfortunately, measurement of the width of these bands was not possible as they were not clear enough. During this time, the outer secondary bow together with a third, inner bow remained faint and were white in colour; the inner secondary bow being nearly too faint to see." Comments from an expert in meteorological optics remarked that the radii of the primary and outer secondary bows were less than the theoretical values. He dismissed the inner secondary bow as a misinterpretation, since "theory predicts no such inner secondary bow." (Jackson, C.; "Rainbow," Marine Observer, 61:74, 1991.) Reference. Our catalog Rare Halos, Mirages covers the above anomaly plus many other unusual optical phenomena. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #78, NOV-DEC 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... white in colour. The sector CB was the brightest, sector BF not so bright but easily seen, but the sector AF could be seen only with difficulty. The halo was not seen to penetrate the 22 halo at either points A and C and so it could not be stated positively that the halo would have passed through the Sun, although it looked as though this would have been the case. The centre of the 28 halo had an altitude approximately the same as that of the Sun. The phenomenon lasted for about 20 minutes, although the 22 halo lasted for at least another hour." (Miles, Howard; "An Unusual Solar Halo," British Astronomical Association, Journal, vol. 103, 1993.) Reference. Chapter GEH in the catalog Rare Halos, Mirages describes a large variety of anomalous halos. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #94, JUL-AUG 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: Jan-Feb 2001 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Roads of Easter Island The Ubiquitous Bird-and-Fish Motif Astronomy The Finger of God Invisible Suns and Maybe See-Through Planets Too What's Up There? Biology Couvade Chemistry Statistical Astrology Animal Miscellany Superorganisms: From Simplicity to Complexity Geology Strange Red Slime in Mine Western Oregon not Firmly Anchored to North America Geophysics Rochester Residents See Mirage of Canadian Shore 65 Miles Distant Strange Snow Sculpures Ribbons in the Sky Psychology New Proteins Rewrite Memories Unlocking Hidden Talents What do Blind People Dream? ...

... of the bands." Codona explains the shadow bands as basically a twinkling effect involving the thin solar crescent just before and after totality. The twinkling is created by turbulence only tens or hundreds of feet above the ground. The eclipse shadow bands, like so many other "well-explained" phenomena, display idiosyncracies that do not dovetail well with theory. Codona mentions two of these: (1 ) Bands of different colors, travelling at different speeds, are sometimes seen superimposed on each other; and (2 ) Bands of giant size have been observed. (Codona, Johana L.; "The Enigma of Shadow Bands," Sky and Telescope, 81: 482, 1991.) Comment. Still other shadow-band anomalies are cataloged in GES1, in Rare Halos, Mirages. This catalog is described here . From Science Frontiers #77, SEP-OCT 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...