Observation Height: about 40' above water on the bridge
North Side: Approximate Location: 30° 4'42.40"N, 90°24'20.98"W
South Side: Approximate Location: 30° 4'38.71"N, 90°24'12.66"W
Tall Background Tower (210' - ORS# 22-001038): 30°17'37.59"N, 90°18'38.64"W
IMG_4118 is my personal favorite of the images, which I color balanced and notated - including the perspective lines for the towers.
Where those lines converge is where the horizon would be IF Earth was flat. That is how the "Vanishing Point" for parallel lines works. The fact that the horizon is BELOW that point and the fact that the towers clearly fall below these lines shows you the water surface is curved.
Image Credit: Soundly IMG_4118 |
Image Credit: Soundly IMG_4034 |
Image Credit: Soundly IMG_4037 |
Image Credit: Soundly IMG_4040 |
Image Credit: Soundly IMG_4043 |
Image Credit: Soundly IMG_4049 |
Image Credit: Soundly IMG_5038 |
I've said it before and I'll say it again - AGREEMENT WITH MODEL IS NOT PROOF. This is very good evidence but it COULD BE wrong for some reason. That's completely fair.
Calling these images "fakes" or dismissing them out of hand however is not genuine scientific inquiry. Soundly has video, numerous images, and a LIVE STREAM of this area.
There are some videos that fail to show this curve but they are low resolution and blurry and do not refute the authenticity of these images. I addressed one of them here on my blog.
Curved Tower Line?
So "Zach" made a video which alleged that this "apparent" curvature was due to the towers not being in a straight-line -- of course he very pointedly analyzed the WRONG line of towers which renders his analysis completely moot but I wanted to address this idea that the towers being out of line could cause this view.
So I made a SketchUp model [ Download Sketchup Model ] where I curved the line of towers
The first ~100 towers are in a straight-line, and the rest bow out according to a slight curvature - which is very clear from this angle.
Now let's look down both sides of the towers, first from the side where the towers curve out. No matter where you cut this we do not see the characteristic downward curve we see in Soundly's images.
And from the other side the towers are so dense you cannot see past them so you just see a truncated line of towers.
Since Soundly has images from BOTH SIDES showing the same downward curve this is very good evidence that it's an actual downward curve and NOT an artifact of the towers being out of line.
Refraction
Perhaps refraction could be responsible for this effect?
Well, ok -- but normally refraction RAISES more distant objects up and allows us to see very slightly over the horizon that would exist if there was no atmosphere -- this is because light tends to bend towards the more dense air at lower altitudes. It is POSSIBLE for refraction to reverse direction but since we see evidence of inferior mirages forming right above the horizon in Soundly's image.
For now, these stand as excellent examples of Earth's Curvature.
The fact tha we have to create this kind of proof in this time and age, just makes me cringe... Anyways, keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout out!
ReplyDelete