Early on this glorious August morning Cunard´s mighty ocean liner Queen Mary 2 arrived at Helsingør. Due to the atmospheric conditions creating a mirage effect, the ship appeared almost to float in the air as it approached its destination:
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| The QM2 approaching Helsingør |
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| Here the strangely distorted QM2 is already preparing to lay anchor. The island Ven (Hven in Danish) on the left appears to be floating in the air.
Below two other images of the QM2 with a somewhat "new look". The magnified waves in the second picture are quite interesting :
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The word mirage can be more accurately defined by explaining that atmospheric conditions can cause deviation of the normally straight movement of light rays, creating a situation where an object is perceived as displaced or distorted. Mirages are usually seen at the horizon and with a very small angular diameter, yet they may take a number of shapes. The shrubs and rocks on a small island may tower into the sky; low, sloping shores may be vertically stretched so they look like precipices; a ship and its deck superstructures may distort into unidentifiable boxy shapes; entire islands seem to float in the air with inverted mirages below them; a number of mirages of the same island appear, now right way up, now upside down, above the island; a ship is seen to travel along the distant horizon upside down; the setting sun looks square, splits up into slices and gives off a final, bright green flash before going down.
Read the entire article here
PS
On the photo below you can see the QM2 in front of Hamlet´s castle Kronborg. The mirage effect almost disappeared when the ship appears only in the more remote background:
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| The QM2, a Buster boat and Kronborg castle |
The mirage effect is not very visible on this picture either:
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