See "canals" in a page of text
Frome the Dome-L mailing list:
"Regarding a message sent last weekend about a strange string-like object
seen in the sky during the recent eclipse, I've seen similar
"strings" moving overhead, both during the daytime
and at night, illuminated by city lights. They've
turned out to be dozens or hundreds of geese flying in
formation far off in the distance. Our brains connect the individual
birds into a solid string (similar to the
mechanism that created the illusion of some of the
Martian "canals"). The birds often fly in a "wedge" formation,
but sometimes it is more of a straight or curved line. For a good
demonstration of this illusion, look at a page of text in a book and
put your eyes slightly out-of-focus. You will
notice "canals" form on the page, which are
actually chance alignments of spaces between words which are
connected together by our brains
- Rich
Sanderson, Springfield Science Museum,
Springfield, MA |