The view across Lyme Bay

[FairweatherDave]

I was a bit surprised today. On foot between Durdle door and Lulworth cove, specifically up Hambury Tout, (138m), I was looking towards Portland Bill and directly behind the middle entrance I could see land, and by my estimate it was Berry head, or the higher ground above Brixham. 47 NM. Just thought it worth a share!

 

[SaltIre]

Fair weather Dave?

 

[FairweatherDave]

Quite cloudy actually. But yes, cool . I get excited spotting the Isle of Wight from Brighton but this ain't my patch. Having sailed across Lyme Bay last year as my "blue water" big adventure today's view renders that less impressive.

 

[FairweatherDave]

Hmmmmmmm...According to Guinness World Records, the answer is 275 miles. In July 2016, Mark Bret Gumá took a photo of the Alps while standing on the Pic de Finestrelles in the Pyrenees. This currently stands as the longest sightline on earth

 

[ProDave]

Hmmmmmmm...According to Guinness World Records, the answer is 275 miles. In July 2016, Mark Bret Gumá took a photo of the Alps while standing on the Pic de Finestrelles in the Pyrenees. This currently stands as the longest sightline on earth

You can see Blackpool tower from the top of Cairngorm mountain, that must be pretty close to that distance?

 

[Sandy]

From time to time I can see Portland from Exmouth, so not out of the question.

 

[bikedaft]

You can see Blackpool tower from the top of Cairngorm mountain, that must be pretty close to that distance?

That's impressive!

 

[DanTribe]

A bit of weather lore from a friend in Exmouth.
If you can see Berry Head it's going to rain soon. If you can't see it, it is raining.

 

[wonkywinch]

The old line of sight calculator (1.25 times the square root of your height in feet gives line of sight in nm).

The Berry Head VOR (aircraft nav beacon) is 215' (66m) high and you were 453 feet up (138m) so the two sums are 16nm plus 26nm equals 42nm so you're right on the limit of line of sight, but as you say, high ground around BHD would help. You certainly don't need Specsavers!

 

[FairweatherDave]

Thanks for the formula. Makes sense I could see the high ground behind Brixham. But I do need Specsavers.....they do hearing too....and they are my NHS source for audiology. But I couldn't hear any big bangs yesterday, although the firing ranges were supposedly in use.
Update....heard firing today

 

[billskip]

That's impressive!

I can see the moon (sometimes) that's 240,000 miles..(give or take a bit)

 

[SaltIre]

I can see the moon (sometimes) that's 240,000 miles..(give or take a bit)

Yup. The moon is nearer than London in many parts of the UK. You can see the moon but you can't see London.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

In the polar regions, long distance visibility is not uncommon - refraction caused by cold air at ground level substantially extends the distance you can see over, without requiring an elevated viewpoint such as that @FairweatherDave mentions in post 4. It is not unusual to be able to see the mountains on Alexander Island from Rothera Point; the distance is about 104 nautical miles, and is well beyond the distance you'd calculate using a line-of-sight calculator. And I've seen objects 80nm away in Svalbard, but that was from an aircraft at around 1000m asl. The air is very clear in the polar regions, and there is often strong refraction.

Many reports of imaginary islands and even continents in the polar regions have resulted from even experienced polar travellers seeing land or icebergs that were far further away than they imagined.

 

[LittleSister]

In the polar regions, long distance visibility is not uncommon - refraction caused by cold air at ground level substantially extends the distance you can see over, without requiring an elevated viewpoint . . .

Not to mention that miles and kilometres shrink in those sort of temperatures!

 

[johnalison]

Not to mention that miles and kilometres shrink in those sort of temperatures!

and that’s not all, so I’m told.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Not to mention that miles and kilometres shrink in those sort of temperatures!

And expand! It's incredibly difficult to judge distance in the Polar regions. There are no familiar objects like trees to give scale, and the air is very clear when it's not full of snow! Invariably you underestimate distances, and what looks like a mile turns out to be 5!