A man in England taking pictures of the Cornish coast took a recent picture of what at first appeared to be a ship floating among the clouds.
Photographer David Morris said he was “amazed and very baffled” by the optical illusion, but admitted that he had seen something similar before, according to the UK ITV.
The ship appeared to be floating because of the similar coloring of the distant sky and sea, according to ITV.
“Higher mirages occur because of the climatic condition known as temperature inversion, where cold air is close to the sea with the warmest air above it,” said BBC meteorologist David Braine.
He said the mirage appears because of “special atmospheric conditions that bend light”, adding that the phenomenon is common in the Arctic, but occasionally occurs in the United Kingdom.
OPTICAL ILLUSIONS TO DOUBLE THE MIND
“Since cold air is denser than hot air, it diverts light into the eyes of those on the ground or on the coast, changing the appearance of a distant object,” he said.
Last week, another man in Scotland took a picture of a ship that appeared to be sailing through the sky.
“I saw an optical illusion in real life in Banff today,” wrote Colin McCallum in a viral Facebook post with his photo off the coast of Aberdeen in northern Scotland.