One of the few proofs given by flat earthers of a flat earth is that of long distance photography. They claim that long distance shots, like the one below, should not be possible on a sphere the stated size of the earth, and so this is proof the earth is flat! But is it really? We'll take a look at the math and science, what even the photographers themselves have to say about it, and see what the truth is about this world record longest distance landscape photo, which is quite possibly the best evidence flat earthers have for a flat earth.

Image Credit: Beyond Horizons Fair Use Claim

Currently, the world record, at least as claimed on the website Beyond Horizons, of the longest land to land landscape image, and the central point of much controversy, is Marc Brett with his beautiful image in the Pyrennes mountains, with a distance of 443 km or 275 miles.

Is This Image Proof of a Flat Earth?

Flat earthers say this shot would be impossible on a spheroidal earth and that the mountain should be hidden by various amounts, depending upon who you talk to. But, for instance, @ponts on my previous article entitled If We Lived on a Sphere, Wouldn't Buildings Appear to Lean?, claims the mountain should be hidden by 60,000 feet (18,288 meters) of the earth's curvature! Wow, sounds like he proved the earth is flat if the mountains in the distance should be hidden by 60,000 feet!

Should those mountains really be hidden by a full 11 miles? That's a HUGE amount and would be hard to explain away. So, where did he get this number anyway? Well, as I said in the article he replied to, flat earthers think math was invented to control and confuse people, but are happy to apply it incorrectly when needed to make their case.

Since he just states this number and does not explain where he pulled this number from, I will have to take an educated guess and explain where most flat earthers get their numbers (besides the obvious). They love to use the earth's curvature calculation of 8 inches per mile squared, as stated on Wikipedia and other sites, that is the approximate drop of the earth's curvature over the distances we would be dealing with for visualization purposes. Over longer distances, the formula creates an infinite parabola, but that is irrelevant for the shorter distances we are dealing with.

Image credit: SmokeScreenDesign Probably not the original source, but this image is all over the net and I'm unsure of the original source at this point.

So, using this formula and the specs from the image, we actually get a drop calculation of 50,368 feet (15352.166 meters). So, his calcsulation of 60,000 feet is close enough to not quibble about. So, is he right and did he just prove the earth is flat?

Image Credit: SmokeScreenDesign

All He Proved is Flat Earthers Can't Do Math

Unfortunately for flat earthers, all this proves is that flat earthers are either dishonest, or can't do math, or possibly both. The first error made is that the height of the photographer, and the subsequent increased distance to the horizon created by this, was not taken into account.

Fortunately for us, the photographer documented this and quite a bit of other interesting information. This image was taken from the gigantic elevation of 9251 feet (2820 meters). To not take such an enormous amount of elevation into account when saying how much of the target should be hidden is a typical flat earth tactic to make their position seem possible to the gullible who aren't going to, or who are unable to delve into the minute details of this subject as we go into here.

Obviously distance to horizon increases with increased elevation. Ironically, as we point out on our page Proving the Earth is Not Flat With Nothing But a Ladder, this distance increase is based on the math of a sphere the size of our planet. So, we'll take that into account in a moment.

HIs second error is simply using the incorrect formula. When we look across our earth, we see the line of sight distance and not the pure drop of the earth, as seen below.

Image Credit: Metabunk Curve Calculator

While the pure drop of the earth is part of the calculation, how much of the object is obscured by the curvature of the earth is actually what we need to know, and this is a more complex calculation that is discussed on the Metabunk Curve Calculator discussion page.

In this case, using the calculations given by the photographer, the amount that should be behind the curvature of the earth, using standard refraction, is actually 12477 feet (3802 meters). Wow, that's 20% of the amount alleged by the flat earther! See the image below. What we are interested in knowing is the 'refracted hidden' amount that is outlined on the calculator. Note the HUGE difference between the pure drop and the refracted hidden amount that we are looking at. A difference of almost 6 miles!!! Wow, no wonder flat earthers are confused when they see these long distance shots and think the mountain should be 6 miles lower than it actually is, due to using the wrong math!

Image Credit: Metabunk Curve Calculator

That still means that our image should be 12,477 feet behind the curvature though, right? So the earth must be flat because we see mountains? Not quite. We still have to see how high the mountains are. So, how high is the farthest mountain the image? Again, fortunately, the photographer has given us all of this information, as you can see in the image below.

Image Credit: Beyond Horizons Fair Use Claim

As you can see, the furthest peak is also the highest at 12,687 feet (3867 meters). However, the curvature of the earth is such that 12,477 feet should be behind the curve. So that means that we shoud see 201 feet (64 meters) of the mountain. That's a FAR cry from the mountain being 60,000 feet behind the curve!

But obviously the mountain shows more than 210 feet (64 meters) of elevation! So,should flat earthers do a happy dance and declare victory? Not quite yet. While we cerainly see that there is more than 200 feet of elevation, it certainly isn't 12,000 feet of elevation either, as we should see if the earth were flat. So, what is going on here?

One thing that we did not take into account yet is refraction. Refraction is the tendency for light to bend and to project objects upwards onto the sky from their actual position. Flat earthers love to say that refraction is just something that 'globetards' invented to pretend curvature exists when it doesn't, but refraction has been noted for thousands of years by sailors and people who live by the sea. These long distance photographers are extremely aware of refraction and plan to take these photographs when the weather is favorable for refraction in order to see distances they could not otherwise see.

In fact, the website this image and the other 'world record' long distance photographs are on has a Tutorial on Refraction! And you can see that many of the photographers take pains to go through the many comments from flat earthers and address how they take advantage of refraction, and that these long distance shots are not an everyday occurrence. This funny comment by one of the photographers addresses a comment by a flat earther about refraction being an evil invention to fool the people into believing the earth is round.

Image Credit: Beyond Horizons Fair Use Claim

In fact, the photographer himself even proves that this image is due to refraction, because he shows his world record shot, that was taken just before sunrise; then he shows this shot below, that was taken just a few minutes after sunrise. Both shots are taken from virtually the same place, just a few minutes apart, yet you can see that the refraction has been drastically decreased such that the mountains in the background are almost completely invisible.

Image Credit: Beyond Horizons

Below is is a comparison shot of the two images matched as closely to the same vantage point as possible with the horizon and the line of what looks like a line of rocks on the water marked in red.

Image Credit: Beyond Horizons

Note, the mountains we could see quite clearly in the first shot are no longer visible in the shot just a few minutes after sunrise. This is exactly what we'd expect on a sphere the size of the earth with an extra bit of refraction from what the photographer calls 'refractive favorable circumstances'. That refraction was present is evident by the photographer's own observations and experience.

They wait for these kinds of conditions in order to get these photos, and hence have an intimate understanding of the practical and observable science of refraction that allows them to take these long distance images. The irony here is that flat earthers claim to demand observable, measurable, repeatable science that is not just theoretical, but then reject it as 'magic' or 'invented' when this science does not confirm their bias.

Why is 275 Miles a World Record?

While flat earthers will complain that refraction doesn't exist, despite the fact that photographers plan for it and intentionally use it to get great images they could not otherwise take, the real question is "Why is a 275 mile image the world record longest landscape photo if the earth is flat?" If the earth were flat, these types of photos would be every day occurrences. Flat earthers will tell you that we can't see further because of environmental conditions, however, this is nonsense and the image below is proof.

Image Credit: My own

We regularly see the sun and moon set on the horizon and, according to flat earthers, these celestial bodies are at least 3000 miles away and only 30 miles wide, yet we can see them easily with the naked eye under all but the worst environmental conditions. If we can see the sun set on the horizon, we should be able to take a telescope and see mountain ranges that are 3000 miles away in the same direction, since the environmental conditions that allow us to see the sunset obviously allow us to see objects at least the same distance away as the sun. The 'environmental condition' argument for not being able to see further is just more of flat earth ad hoc reasoning to explain away a provable inconsistency in their faith.

While flat earthers claim these shots are proof of a flat earth, the fact that the world record in photography is literally just beyond the distance of what we would calculate from that height, and completely consistent with a bit of extra refraction that the photographers themselves predict in order to take these shots, it's pretty clear we are able to see only the distance we can see, and are unable to see thousands of miles away, because the earth is a sphere.