77. From Genoa at a height of 70 feet the island of Elba should not be visible on a spherical Earth

"Also from Genoa, on bright clear days, the island of Elba can be seen an incredible 125 miles away! If Earth were a ball 25,000 miles in circumference, Elba should be forever invisible behind 8770 feet of curvature.”

Elba is visible in Dubay's image due to atmospheric refraction and the elevation from which the image was taken.

Dubay can't do trigonometry, so his calculations are incorrect, but using the correct calculations it is true that without atmospheric refraction and from a height of 70 feet, Elba should not be visible from Genoa.

However let us look more closely at this evidence.

Lie:  The image above was taken from 70 feet above sea level

Dubay has in fact just copied an image from a video that he found on YouTube (See below approx 1.33 into the video).  The narrator clearly states that what is being seen is a mirage (In Italian Fata Morgana) The narration is in Italian, but you should be able get the gist of what is being said.

There is no record of the height at which the video was taken or where it is taken, which is enough to show that Dubay has lied about the 70 feet, but I can go further.

Below is a clip taken from the video:

Below is a clip of a photo taken from Spianata Castelletto, the most famous viewing point in Genoa:

Source: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187823-d2312197-Reviews-Spianata_Castelletto-Genoa_Italian_Riviera_Liguria.html#photos;aggregationId=101&albumid=101&filter=7&ff=322179388

Although taken from a different angle you can see that the elevation from which the second image was taken is much lower.  Note the blocky building on the left and the taller more distant building to its right.

The height of the Spianata Castelletto is about 260 feet / 80 metres above sea level
(See: https://www.zonzofox.com/genova/what-to-see/explore/attractions/spianata-castelletto) so it is a safe bet that the video was taken from a much higher elevation.  My guess would be the heights just east of Genoa which reach elevations of 2600 feet / 800 metres.

Further evidence of this is that the video shows a plane flying well below eye level. See below.

By my calculations, taking moderate refraction into account the altitude required to be able to see the top 1150 feet / 350 metres of Elba would be 2300 feet / 700 metres, which is achievable from the heights east of Genoa.

I normally try not to rely on atmospheric refraction for my rebuttals but Dubay as good as admits that refraction is at play by stating that Elba is "often" visible, not always.

So Dubay is again shown to be a liar who never hesitates to mislead his readers.  In this case he uses an inappropriate image as evidence and makes up his elevation figure.



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