A cormorant is hunting for fish, diving in the cold waters of the Saronic Gulf, undisturbed from the dramatic scenery developing in the background...
where the line in the horizon looks 'unstable', and a ship with an altered shape appears hovering above the water
Along with the cormorant, the coastline too appears ready to take off from the surface and fly...
Fata Morgana is the italianised version of the Old British name of the sorceress Morgan le Fay (= 'Morgan the Fairy'), in the Medieval Legends of King Arthur. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, 'Vita Merlini'), through the account of the Taliesin, Morgana (or, 'Morgen')
is the first among the nine sisters that rule over the mystical isle of Avalon, (in the tradition of the Greek Hesperides, and the Islands of the Blessed). It is where King Arthur -in later accounts, her half brother- had been carried after his serious injury in the battle, and where he should be left until with her treatment his wounds had healed.
Fata Morgana, also appears in the tales of Orlando, and this name was selected by the Sicilian Folk Tradition to signify the strange optical phenomenon frequently observed in the Strait of Messina,(-the same place identified as the most possible location of the lair of the Homeric 'Scylla' and 'Charybdis'...-),causing a phantasmagoria of strange idols projected above the horizon, bringing to mind the legendary island of the Sorceress, who like Circe was supposedly trying to lure the seamen to their death...
In fact it is a complex form of a double superior mirage being caused due to the thermal inversion between two atmospheric layers which results in the projection of objects that lay in the horizon (islands, coastline, ships, icebergs, valleys, etc) as a composition of two or more inverted (upside down) and erect (right side up) images stacked on top of one another.
a schematic presentation of the creation process of Fata Morgana
This occurs due to the interaction between the warmer higher air with the more dense colder air near the surface of the sea or ground, and the creation of an atmospheric duct that acts like a refracting lens. Passing through the duct, the rays of light are bent producing an inverted (idol) image on top of which the farthest projected straight image appears to float...
The double image of a vessel sailing the Saronic Gulf (Jan 2016), that resembles a 'submarine' floating in the air above the sea...
The phenomenon is frequently observed in the Arctic seas, as well as in other locations, but what is not largely known is that it is very ordinary also in the Saronic Gulf, particularly in winter and when there is a sudden temperature drop.
An awkward scene in the Saronic Gulf with...floating 'Transformers' ships!
The shape of the object is frequently heavily distorted during Fata Morgana
Usually the phenomenon is followed by several distorted images rapidly changing and frequently altering (to the extreme) the characteristics of the the projected object, creating paradox geometric shapes that appear to be floating above the horizon.
This has produced legends and speculations about 'flying ships', as most likely is the case with at least some of the accounts claiming sighting of the legendary 'Flying Dutchman.
A sequence of photos with a phantasmagoric scene in the Saronic Gulf...
The boat still at short distance from the coast is not affected by the phenomenon
As if ready to battle, two modern 'Flying Dutchmen' float above the waves...
The passenger ship (double image: top the upright projection and beneath the upside down reflection proceeds with its route to the east.
A number of couples of distorted (double) images of the same ship, possibly each showing different parts of the object thus in the whole creating a strange horizontal puzzle...
Meanwhile the boat continues sailing out of the bay..
Until it too enters the 'spell-zone' of Fata Morgana...
In more recent times, the phenomenon of Fata Morgana has probably caused a number of accounts with sightings of UFO, or USO, especially the ones seen hovering close above the ground or the sea surface, -such an example in my opinion could be one of the infamous photos
that, according to the French magazine, Top Secret had been captured from the submarine USS Trepang in the Arctic ocean, in March 1971...
Floating boats or isles can easily be described as UFO by someone passing by...
A 'flying Saucer' caught in the process of re-fueling with sea water in the Saronic Bay?
In fact the same phenomenon has been proposed as the explanation of the 'drosoulites' ('dew shades') at Frangocastello, in South Crete. We will return to this soon, with the several clues and interesting results answers from our research there, but for now, I can only say that there are some accounts showing that this phenomenon has indeed been observed there, too. As I can also say that the model of this or any other type of superior Mirage alone is not sufficient to explain this. 'Drosoulites' is mostly an optical phenomenon, and mirage seems to be playing some part to its mechanism, as shown is some of our videos, but if this alone is the mechanism causing the phenomenon, then we will have to deal with something much more complex even than Fata Morgana, which seems to yet remain unknown to science...
check out our relevant video with the phenomenon filmed
One last thing that I feel I need to add. I've been observing the phenomenon for the last 5-6 years, several times during winter. Apart from the Saronic Gulf, I have also seen this in other places, too, such as Methoni at the South Peloponnese, but also during some trips abroad, like in the Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Fata Morgana at the Channel between the Northern Ireland and the coast of Scotland (October 2019)
So coming to think about it, I would dare say that, if there really were any 'magic spells' involved in this, then they must had caught those standing at the side of the observer, rather than the objects in the horizon... Because even though I have observed all these extraordinary and sometimes wonderful sightings from almost all the coast of Attica in the Saronic Gulf, -from Palaio Faliro (near Piraeus) to nearly Cape Sounio-, for some strange reason, from all the rest people being present at the time, no-one ever seems to observe this!...
Flying islets (taken at Flisvos in January 2018)
Even at times when this was evolving right in front of large crowds!...I do recall such an example, one January afternoon at Flisvos, where several young people had gathered to watch the sunset and they were all starring at the sea but no-one really seemed to take any notice of the strange things that were developing right there, at the horizon!... Whole islets floating above the sea, boats and ships in some act of transformation, hovering above the water, such amazing sightings and no-one seemed to observe this, or talk to their company about this... As if apart from me and Maria to whom I had earlier shown the phenomenon and we were observing and taking photos, the rest of the people present had been touched by the invisible wand of a Witch...
Fata Morgana is less easily noticed not to mentioned captured on photo, but continues to develop even during night time...
-P.S: By the way, the recent photos in the media, with the 'hovering ships' seen in Cornwall and in Banffare not examples of Fata Morgana -or any sort of superior mirage, for that matter- as it has been suggested in most of the
sites where they have been published. The one in Cornwall, could be a less complex optical
phenomenon called looming,
(an extremely large refraction that increases the apparent elevation of a
distant object and allows its observation even if at normal conditions it lays beyond the horizon), but as with the case of the image in Banff, it could simply be an optical illusion caused due to the
proportion of the observer and the lack of a distinguishable line separating the sea from the sky reflected on its surface, and a 'false horizon' impression formed where the coastal currents meet the calmer open sea.
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