Re: Here's a question for the trolls and flight simmers

In article <8d1f64ps8m8mfo36u5jvcs51sbqii81np0@xxxxxxx>,
Stealth Pilot <notransponder@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

at 4,500ft (the original question) the aircraft has no shadow at all
but at the sub solar point (were you'd think the shadow should be)
there is a distinct bright area tracking along under the aircraft.

for thirty years this quietly puzzled me. it is a fact that aircraft
at altitude have no shadow. below them tracking along the ground is a
bright spot of light.

the reference I gave gives details of some original work by Fresnel
which proposed that light passing beside a gravitational mass should
be bent slightly by the mass and behind the body there should be a
bright spot. this seems to me to be the explanation for the absense of
the shadow. the mass of the aircraft acts as a gravitational lens and
this causes the bright spot.

Poisson spot, Spot of Arago, Keller edge waves. Very much doubt
gravitational bending of light is involved.
.

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