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| Distance | 215 Kilometers |
| By | Marc Bret Gumà |
| Camera | Panasonic Lumix DSC-FZ72 EXR @ ISO160 – 1/160 |
| Lens | 215 mm (equiv. 35mm: 1800mm) @ f/8 |
| Date | January 15rd 2015 – 08:17 |
Three and a half weeks before and after the winter solstice, the sun rises behind Sierra de Tramuntana in Mallorca island, as seen from a summit in southern Catalonia. This is helpful to portray those mountains, which would otherwise require higher transparency.
Puig Major and Mont Caro are summits that keep similarities between them.
Both are calcareous in geology and have almost the same height. Puig Major however is much more prominent because it’s the highest peak of the Balearic islands. It’s height is 1336 meters, although it reached 1445 meters until half S. XX when a military facility unfortunately lowered its top nine meters.
Map of balearic sea and the distance.
The sea is a great humidity generator which often hides island’s perception. Without the help from the Sun, most of the chances to portray the island require to be accompanied by strong westerly winds (usually dry) but they not always guarantee the success.
After sunrise, if the air is clear enough it is still possible to see the silhouettes.
This photo was taken at 08:33. As it is a wider picture I can illustrate some other peaks of the range. To compare this image with the simulation of Ulrich deuschle website click here.
The surprise of green flash
Sometimes, specially in long distance sunrises it’s possible to see this phenomenon.
In the past it was popularized by a Jules Verne novel and for years was quite mystified for lovers. This phenomen0n is due to different refraction angles for each wavelength in sun’s light, and usually lasts less than 2 seconds. In Arctic latitudes, this phenomenon can usually be observed for several minutes.
A contemplation foreseen in advance
These pictures have not been taken by chance. I love those mountains in the distance. I’ve been trying to repport the mountains of Mallorca for some years, and from different points from Catalonia (*) but never before I had been able to do that with the sun rising behind the mountains of the island, though I managed to calculate the date correctly. Last time, two years ago, I moved from Barcelona on purpose and tried that but the clouds hid me the phenomenon.
This year (2015) I tried again. I went with Rosa Navales and her dog. We arrived together at night to a hostel near of Mont Caro and next day, before sunset we prepared a pair of cameras in the summit and we finally got it.
Image photographied by Rosa Navales at the firsts seconds in the morning.
It is interesting to appreciate the totally flat shape of the upper limb of the sun because of the atmospheric refraction. At that moment the green light had not yet been appeared. Picture made with Fuji Film HS30 with manual zoom.
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Note:(*) horitzonsllunyans
Beyond Horizons 
How is this possible on a globe earth the curvature should be some 1.2 miles? Is there something we are not being told? ?
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