This is a great spot to witness the phenomina of "Fata Morgana"
On some cold clear winter days I have witnessed it from here! Good
Luck!
ATTENTION! THERE MUST BE AN ACTUAL FATA MORGANA IN THE PICTURE
TO COUNT THIS AS A FIND. TAKING A PICTURE AT THE LISTED COORDINATES
WITHOUT THE FATA MORGANA DOES NOT COUNT AS A FIND. The Fata Morgana
will be best viewed across cook inlet on one of those crisp, cold,
winter mornings Denali is visible. The foothills below Denali seem
to be prone to this. It really is amazing on the days that it is
extreme. I had little information about Fata Morgana before I
decided to try to make it a earth cache... Here are some thoughts
by other, perhaps more qualified folks on this phenomina.
"Fata Morgana" br By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
And forever before me gleams, The shining city of song, In the
beautiful land of dreams.
It is gone, and I wonder and wait for the vision to
reappear.
And some less poetic thoughts... As described by T. Neil Davis
in the Alaska Science Forum September 1, 1978-- Fata Morgana, also
known as Morgan le Fay, was a fairy enchantress skilled in the art
of changing shape. In one traditional story she was King Arthur's
sister and learned many of her skills from Merlin the Magician. A
special type of complex mirage, one that sometimes gives the
impression of a castle half in the air and half in the sea, is
named after Fata Morgana. She was known to live in a marvelous
castle under the sea. Sometimes the enchantress made this castle
appear reflected up in the air, causing seamen who mistook it for a
safe harbor to be lured to their deaths.
A Fata Morgana is a mirage, an optical phenomenon which results
from a temperature inversion with warmer air above cooler air. Fata
Morgana is a complexe mirage with few inverted and erect images.
The images which are created by Fata Morgana show the alterations
of compressed and stretched zones.
Fata Morgana is also a fast changing mirage.
In calm weather, the undisturbed interface between warm air over
cold dense air near the surface of the ground may act as a
refracting lens, producing inverted and erect images.
The fata morgana mirage is one that can occur only where there
are alternating warm and cold layers of air near the ground or
water surface. Instead of traveling straight through these layers,
light is bent towards the colder, hence denser, air. The result can
be a rather complicated light path and a strange image of a distant
object. A fata morgana actually is a superposition of several
images of one object. Typically one image is upright more or less
above two inverted images that may be mingled together. The images
may undergo rapid changes as the air layers move slightly up and
down relative to the observer. In Alaska the best chance of seeing
the relatively rare fata morgana is in winter when temperature
inversions develop in the larger valleys. When seeing a complex
mountain image out across a valley or bay one can attempt to sort
out in the mind the paths that the light rays must have taken.
Perhaps it's best just to acknowledge that it is Morgan le Fay
beckoning.
To log this EartheCache:
1. Fata Morgana's are usually seen after a cold night. How does
this make objects on the horizon appear?
2. A Fata Morgana is caused by what?
3. Finally, attach a picture of yourself (face included) and the
Fata Morgana to log a find.
Post your pictures as to get credit for the find. Good luck! In
calm weather, the undisturbed interface between warm air over cold
dense air near the surface of the ground may act as a refracting (A
transparent optical device used to converge or diverge transmitted
light and to form images) lens, producing an upside-down image,
over which the distant direct image appears to hover. The first
mention of 'Fata Morgana' in English, in 1818, referred to such a
mirage noticed in the Strait of Messina, between Calabria and
Sicily.