Refraction

Atmospheric refraction plays with the light of any object near the horizon, the sun, moon, and also stars. Filmed in timelapse photography from two major observatories in Chile, immense distortion appear in the animated star-trails (star motion due to the Earth rotation). As stars set into inversion layers on the horizon the phenomenon becomes visible. The moon scene is filmed near Boston on the Atlantic Ocean shoreline. The mirage is an optical phenomenon in which light rays are refracted and bent in the atmosphere and produce distorted or multiple images of the object.