Optical Illusions:Whats tricked your eyes?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Last night, I saw an optical illusion. It was after a really nice day with friends that ended with a wonderful dinner. We were heading home, and my wife was driving. I was looking out the window and I had noticed the moon had risen. It was a full moon, with a very yellowish tint, not the normal bluish tint. As I looked at it, I could see it was fading in and out of dark broken clouds. As I looked, my eyes adjusted and saw a pattern in the black clouds next to the moon. I swear that it looked like the face of a skull was right next to the moon.

Was it an optical illusion? Definitely. Was it a ‘sign’? No where around it did I see a speed limit or an exit posted, so no, it could not be a ‘sign’. For all I know, it was a Disney publicity stunt to increase ticket sales for ‘Pirates of the Carribean’. Still, I’d be lying if I said that it did not startle me. I guess my question is, **have any of you seen optical illusions that were unusual or that have startled you? **

2

After passing through the Cape Cod Canal heading north to Camden, Maine. It’s a well known phenomena but it was still pretty scary to experience. Lights too far away to be seen can be seen coming from the west coast - I just got goosebumps typing this. Lucky the skipper knew about it otherwise we could have decided to ignore the instruments and head away from the lights. That shivered me timbers let me tell you.

3

I’ve had certain wallpaper patterns pull a stereogram on me, particularly right after I wake up in the morning. It’s an odd experience, and it can be jarring, particularly when you find yourself asking “why does that wallpaper look 3D and about a foot away from my face?”

4

I just posted about the glowing orbs in the “I THOUGHT it was a ghost, but…” thread. It works just as well here.

5

The moon normally looks “bluish”? The “yellowish” tint is unusual?

Wow, where do you live? The moon is nearly almost white/yellow/orange where I exist. Blue would be a noticeable transgression of the Laws of Normality.

However, several years ago, I was driving home in the middle of the night. It was spring or fall (I forget which), and there was a lot of fog. The time was in the wee hours (3:00-4:00 am), and I was on the road all alone, cruising out through the countryside.

I started noticing that the fog was lighting up on a regular basis: light for a second, dark for a second, light for a second, dark for a second. I couldn’t figure out why until I crested a hill: there, about half a mile in front of me and high up in the sky, was a very bright purple/white light strobing on and off.

As I got closer, it looked as if the light was not moving (so therefore not an airplane), so I finally pulled off the road and stopped to get a better look. It was lighting up the area as far as I could see, and completely stationary. There was also no sound.

I watched it for a couple of minutes on this totally deserted road, and then (as the fog cleared a bit) noticed that there was a structure hanging down from it. It still looked thousands of feet in the air (if not tens of thousands), and I started getting the creepy-crawly feeling that I was seeing a genuine UFO.

That was one of the most surreal moments of my life. I was (I know it sounds cliche, but it’s true) frozen to the spot, and unable to move; having no freaking clue what this thing could be.

As the fog continued to clear, and the structure beneath the strobe became more visible, I finally realized that I was standing very near a radio broadcast tower that had recently been put in, and the light which I’d perceived as thousands of feet in the air was actually only a few hundred feet over my head.

THAT was a relief that is hard to describe.

6

Several years ago I was driving on highway 427, heading for the QEW to go downtown, bout 4 or 5 in the afternoon, clear air visibility unlimited. This highway at a point after Rexdale blvd/Derry Road does a sort of a lazy s curve when your passing the perimeter of Pearson international airport.

So anyways ,I am tooling along the 427 , and all I see in front of me is a parked 747, which had me freaked for a second , until the highway started to curve away from the perimeter, i had probably seen the same situation hundreds of times, but it was the first time I had actually noticed it.

Declan

7

I used to have a small powder room with a really tight pattern on the wallpaper. Every time I sat on that toilet and looked forward at the wall I began to feel my eyes bug out on me. Thank god that whole powder room stands no more.

8

Most of the time where I live, the majority of a full moon’s coloring is white. The dark aspects which give it definition appear as deep dark navy blue as does the night sky around it. I have noticed that when the moon seems to have ‘tints’ (yellow, orange) the dark aspects around it do not appear blue to me, but more of a ‘black’.
Also, re: wallpaper illusions:

The wall paper in our downstairs bathroom was put up by the prior owners. It is a sort of floral pattern, but they put up the paper upside down from how the pattern was supposed to look. In other words, as you sit on the comode and look up at the flowers, it looks like the flowers have just keeled over and died.

I leave a book of matches in that bathroom, and so far every guest who has ‘visited’ that powder room has used at least one. :smiley:

9

Oh, how about this for an optical illusion?

One time I went to the airport to pick up someone. I put my purse through the X-ray machine and then went through the metal detector. One the other side, a security person asked if she could look through my purse and I agreeably allowed her to.

Checking the X-ray monitor, I could see why she wanted to have a look. It appeared that there was a handgun in there! Of course, there wasn’t. Some of the stuff in there just happened to arrange themselves, very realisically, to make it look like there was. The security person rummaged for a moment and, satisfied I wasn’t a crazed hijacker, cheerfully sent me on my way.

This was way before 911 and the advent of the TSA. I imagine I would have been treated differently if the appeared there was a handgun in my purse now.