Komiya films a mirage at Nago Bay

Komiya films a mirage at Nago Bay

Around 6 p.m. in Nago Bay, an image of a ship that a mirage produced, moved in front of the setting sun (part of the footage shot by Ryoichi Komiya).


January 29, 2014 Ryukyu Shimpo

Ryoichi Komiya, a member of the Friends of Nago Museum, successfully filmed a mirage in which light rays produce an image of a distant object. A mirage was observed on January 6. An image of a big ship cut across in front of the setting sun at the Nago Bay. Komiya, who films sunsets as his hobby, happily said, “It occurs once in a thousand or ten thousand chances.”

He took the image at around 6 p.m. on the 6th. Komiya used magnifying power 30 to film it with a portable camera from the top of a five-floor building. Joining Komiya, Koichi Tsuchihashi, who is also a member of the museum, realized that it was a mirage.

Taking about three minutes, a ship cut across in front of the sun, which looked square because of the mirage. The museum said it was rare to record such an image. Air becomes dense when it gets cold and lights bend toward the denser direction. Light rays, which reflect an object at the other side of the horizon, usually move towards the sky. When there is a temperature gap between sea surface and midair, light rays bend to the sea surface with low temperature and high-density, which creates a mirage.

(English translation by T&CT and Megumi Chibana)

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