I've seen people out there looking for them during the day. Lived in that area (twice) but one was 5 years worth and caught myself looking at night, but never saw anything. A lot of it is traffic coming up US 67 from Presidio.
I've been to Marfa twice and it's nothing more than a wide spot in the road. So they have to have something to bring the tourists out. Notice that the so called photos are ambiguous and never show anything. The only clear photo is the woman pointing at something out of the picture frame. If she could see something then take a picture of it too.
I lived and worked out there for years. I have seen the lights, I can't explain them and yes I was sober. I watched them move, split run off in different directions, as well as go up and down.
Pretty sure that the Marfa lights are an example of what's known as a 'superior mirage'. A temperature inversion causes the air to stratify in such a way that its index of refraction gets lower with increasing altitude-- this causes light which leaves headlights, for example, on a slightly upward path to get bent back down to the ground. Since the differences in index are small, this diversion is generally gradual and takes place over a range of miles to (occasionally) hundreds of miles. The reason that the lights appear to be in the sky is that the only things eyes or cameras can really tell about given source of light is what direction it arrived from (the assumption, not always valid, being that it followed a straight line from the source), and (given enough photons) its wavelength distribution (color, more or less).
Swamp gas. No, weather balloons. ;-)) Nemo
ReplyDeleteI've seen people out there looking for them during the day. Lived in that area (twice) but one was 5 years worth and caught myself looking at night, but never saw anything. A lot of it is traffic coming up US 67 from Presidio.
ReplyDeleteI've been to Marfa twice and it's nothing more than a wide spot in the road. So they have to have something to bring the tourists out. Notice that the so called photos are ambiguous and never show anything. The only clear photo is the woman pointing at something out of the picture frame. If she could see something then take a picture of it too.
ReplyDeleteWhy people drink Bud-Lites is a mystery to many as well.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that.
DeletePeyote grows in Marfa.
ReplyDeleteI lived and worked out there for years. I have seen the lights, I can't explain them and yes I was sober. I watched them move, split run off in different directions, as well as go up and down.
ReplyDeletePretty sure that the Marfa lights are an example of what's known as a 'superior mirage'. A temperature inversion causes the air to stratify in such a way that its index of refraction gets lower with increasing altitude-- this causes light which leaves headlights, for example, on a slightly upward path to get bent back down to the ground. Since the differences in index are small, this diversion is generally gradual and takes place over a range of miles to (occasionally) hundreds of miles. The reason that the lights appear to be in the sky is that the only things eyes or cameras can really tell about given source of light is what direction it arrived from (the assumption, not always valid, being that it followed a straight line from the source), and (given enough photons) its wavelength distribution (color, more or less).
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage
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This one has diagrams. . .
ReplyDeletehttps://www.eoas.ubc.ca/courses/atsc113/sailing/met_concepts/10-met-local-conditions/10f-optical-phenomena/
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