Fata Morgana

I was thinking about going to the beach to take pictures yesterday, but as it turned out I had errands to do. See previous.
This is the time of year for really great sunsets. I try to go whenever I have a day off. I went on Sunday and also last week on Sunday and Monday, but all three times I had too many things to do beforehand, and got there after dark!

I was really disappointed to hear that I missed a rare event, a type of mirage that makes wierd shapes of the horizon. I've seen some dramatic videos from a mirage in Japan, and I also saw the effect in the distance while travelling through Arizona two years ago. (I took pictures then, but it was so far away it was just fuzzy blurs.) The effect is also known as fata morgana. The one I saw in the desert was a mirage of a row of distant mountains. The mirror image floated above it, so the peaks were touching. It made the effect of a bunch of balancing rocks, or mushrooms or space ships.
It would have been neat to see a local landmark like Catalina look that way!

Here is a link from the local paper, with a picture.
http://sciencedude.freedomblogging.com/2010/01/04/odd-weather-turns-catalina-into-a-mirage/75983/