Misplaced Pages

#299700

77-489: The aims of the club are the fostering of hiking, training of hiking guides, marking of footpaths, construction and maintenance of rock climbing facilities, observation towers and accommodation facilities, conservation work and support, landscape conservation, support of local culture, monument protection, running the Fichtelgebirge Museum and other local history and natural history collections, publication of

154-450: A distance is definitely the form. Mountains act as domes, beacons, buttes, or steep objects (triangles, protrusions, etc.). The second element, which can help with recognizing the distant object is its color and texture. In the case of mountains, especially not forested we can see their structure changes annually (summer-winter) by the presence of snow coverage. The color pattern of the landscape comes along with its brightness. Brightness makes

231-482: A few maps such as this. Moreover, the process of manual object identification is usually time-consuming and impossible on-site without advanced topography knowledge acquired before. With the growth of the Internet, this method is not used anymore or used occasionally for smaller areas or for mountain guide course purposes. In exchange for it, an observer can do a relevant investigation yet at home, before setting off on

308-477: A few places on Earth, where a similar or bigger result can be achieved. The most important astronomical factors determining the conditions of long-distance observations are: This is the most obvious astronomical factor, as the main source of light shapes the light scattering conditions on haze and visual object appearance. When an object is located at a similar azimuth to the Sun, then its observation conditions are

385-515: A flag pole at its top. Some of these towers are permanently accessible, either free or with the payment of an admission fee. Others are accessible only at certain times, in most cases only with the payment of an admission fee. At these towers the platform is usually open, with some having a restaurant in the basement. There are also towers with a much more extensive use; for example. the observation tower on Rossberg mountains in Reutlingen contains

462-460: A hotel within its structure. Although most of these towers were initially built before World War I , such structures are still being built, in particular as attractions at horticultural shows . Modern observation towers are in most cases no longer built of brick, but concrete, steel and wood are used as the preferred building materials. Permanent observation towers are also sometimes found in amusement parks , however in parks where each attraction

539-523: A lighthouse is usually between 10 and 50 metres high, and is almost always open air. Some sports facilities have high buildings with observation decks. This is often the case at ski jumps, as these have a tower and are usually unused in the summer. In addition, there are other sports facilities with observation decks, like the inclined tower of the Montreal Olympic stadium. Access to the platform of nearly all sports facilities with observation deck

616-540: A long time it was headed by the master forester ( Forstmeister ) of Wunsiedel. Over the course of time branches were formed in the surrounding villages and around the turn of the 20th century membership numbers had risen to 1000. The club enjoyed encouraging growth Aufschwung after the First World War , in 1924 it had 38 local branches with 7000 members. After the Second World War , which had brought

693-402: A restaurant. The height of these platforms, which can be glassed or open-air depending on the height of the building, where they are most common on the topmost floor. As a rule access usually requires the payment of an admission fee, is possible by elevator only at dedicated opening times. Also numerous water towers have, a usually open-air observation deck opened for public traffic, whose height

770-428: A rule an elevator is available in these buildings for the visitors of the observation deck, as the observation deck lies usually very highly (mostly within the range between 50 and 200 metres, at some towers also more highly). Many of these towers have also a tower restaurant, which can be designed as revolving restaurant. While tower restaurants for the protection of the restaurant guests from the wind are in closed rooms,

847-609: A rule, since these buildings are mostly not higher than 20 metres. Active watch towers are not as a rule accessible to the public, since they usually serve for the monitoring of sensitive ranges. However watch towers can be quite ordered for forest fire monitoring a platform accessible for the public or be used during times without forest fire risk as observation towers. Shut down watch towers can however be easily converted to observation towers. Also some radio towers were so built that they can be used apart from their function as transmitting tower also as observation tower. A condition for this

SECTION 10

#1732772942300

924-433: A t-antenna for medium wave and stands on insulators. However one notices at the first experimental transmissions that at the tower voltages would arise, which would have unpleasant consequences for visitors and so the tower was grounded by the elevator shaft. However this shifted direction of main beam of transmitter away from actual supply area, the city of Berlin. As before World War II nearly whole radio traffic took place in

1001-468: A vast plain, lowland, or large water body separates the remote massive chains. The circumstances that are the most favorable for seeing and capturing objects from the biggest possible distance, the best example is the current world's record established in South America . Both mountain ranges separated by lowland from each other must be high enough to be visible at long range like this. There are only

1078-447: A wide choice of maps for hiking tourism, which contains a reach set of names of peaks, passes and valleys and detailed representation of the relief, which should result in a good orientation in hard terrain. A vast majority of these maps are large-scaled, which is impractical for identifying remote objects, as their locations are far outside of the tourist map. For proper recognition of these far-off silhouettes, an observer needs at least

1155-811: Is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations . Observation towers are usually at least 20 metres (66 ft) tall and are made from stone, iron, and wood. Many modern towers are also used as TV towers, restaurants, or churches. The towers first appeared in the ancient world, as long ago as the Babylonian Empire. Observation towers that are used as guard posts or observation posts over an extended period to overlook an area are commonly called watchtowers instead. Similar instances of observation towers are recognised as crow's nests , observatories , viewing platforms , etc. Observation towers are an easily visible sight on

1232-684: Is a sufficiently stable construction, which permits a permanent safe visitor entrance without interruption of the transmission services. This is the case for towers for radio services in the UHF/VHF-range the case, not however for most types of radio towers for long and medium wave, why a use of these structures as observation tower is impossible in most cases. That the use of a tower as radio tower for medium wave and observation tower not well fits, showed up in Radio Tower Berlin , which originally carried together with an 80 metres high mast

1309-969: Is also a specialist regional library, shop, conference and exhibition rooms. The club has branches in the following places: Arzberg , Asch (CZ) , Bad Alexandersbad , Bad Berneck , Bayreuth , Berlin , Bischofsgrün , Brand/Opf. , Ebnath , Fichtelberg , Franken, Gefrees , Goldkronach , Grafenreuth , Hallerstein , Hof/Saale , Hohenberg an der Eger , Kemnath , Kirchenlamitz , Kulmbach , Marktleuthen , Marktredwitz , Mehlmeisel , Münchberg , Nagel , Nemmersdorf , Neusorg , Niederlamitz , Nuremberg , Oberkotzau , Oberwarmensteinach, Pegnitz , Plauen , Pullenreuth , Rehau , Röslau , Schirnding , Schönwald , Schwarzenbach (Saale) , Schwarzenhammer , Selb -Stadt, Selb-Plößberg, Sparneck , Speichersdorf , Thiersheim , Thierstein , Tröstau , Vordorf , Waldershof , Warmensteinach , Weidenberg , Weißenstadt , Weißenstein-Verein, Wunsiedel , Zell im Fichtelgebirge . Observation tower An observation tower

1386-409: Is determined by the precise location of the watcher. It is composed of a multitude of suns stating as the little mirror, as a perfectly smooth surface can contain one glint. These glints are rather elliptical with an aspect ratio depending on the observer's altitude. Along with the low position of the bright source of light above the horizon comes the light reflectance value, which gradually increases as

1463-436: Is in contrast to the entrance of the church usually only possible under payment an admission fee at the opening times of the church. The height of the observation decks is usually in the range between 20 and 50 metres. The platform is nearly always open-air. Some lighthouses have an observation deck open to the public. Access is usually by stairs. An admission fee is often charged and hours may be limited. The observation deck of

1540-523: Is in the brightness, which plays an important role in terms of the thick atmosphere of the Earth at the horizon line. When the atmosphere is not clear enough, moonlight cannot break through it, making the Moon invisible even before astronomical sunset. Furthermore, every 18.9 years, due to the lunar precession , a lunar standstill period occurs. This is to some extent analogous to the solar solstice . Because

1617-411: Is just the difference between the medium on which the surface of the light is reflected or scattered. The described effect might occur everywhere where the light reflection or scattering near the angle of incidence occurs at a denser medium. This denser medium can be the haze trapped inside the inversion layer , which remains somewhat the plain water surface. Because of the different physical states of

SECTION 20

#1732772942300

1694-486: Is mostly as the height of older observation towers in the height range between 10 and 50 metres. It can be reached depending upon tower by stairs or by an elevator. Some water towers have also a tower restaurant. Prospect platforms of water towers are nearly only accessible under payment during the opening times, which are different for each tower. Also some church towers possess observation decks. However elevators are only available in rare cases. The entrance of this platform

1771-402: Is mostly identified with misty conditions or smog . On a clear day, the solar disk visible at the horizon is much brighter than the surrounding sky, if the observed object is too small (i.e. phone transmitter) some filters or short exposures with narrow aperture can be essential. The yearly changes in the twilight azimuth determine the contrast enhancement between a certain part of our horizon and

1848-427: Is not separately paid for, panorama rides are preferred. Watch towers are observation towers, on which persons supervise a larger area. Strictly speaking, control towers also fall into this category, although surveillance from these structures is mostly done in a non-optical way using Radar . Watch towers usually have a closed pulpit to protect the observer against bad weather. Watch towers do not have an elevator as

1925-563: Is only possible during opening times after paying an admission fee. Depending upon the building the access can be done by an elevator and/or a stairway. The platforms can be vitreous or open. The height above ground lies usually between 10 and 50 metres. Fire lookout towers have been used widely in Australia, Canada, and the United States to hoist fire lookout persons to heights where they can identify and report new wildfires. In

2002-451: Is required to achieve a decent observation. Full moon conditions are pretty much the same as considered for the daylight. The Moon is the only significant natural light source beyond the Sun, which can seriously impact the scene's visibility. All other celestial light sources are too weak to improve visibility at night, except perhaps at an excellent dark-sky site combined with advanced long-exposure photography techniques. Besides, since

2079-403: Is the lunar twilight , which can be observed mostly on high-level clouds located ahead of the distant object. This is a group of celestial events which can ease watching of the remote objects, but occur rarely or even extremely rarely. They are restricted in timing or space: The level of haze in the atmosphere, which is primarily visible aftermath is the color of the sky . As research shows,

2156-421: Is the moment when the light scattering takes hold in the atmosphere. In the shaded part of the atmosphere, the secondary scattering takes place. As twilight progresses most of the atmospheric aerosols have an extinction coefficient decreasing in magnitude with increasing wavelength. The moonlight plays a role analogous to the sunlight, but it is about 500,000 times fainter. As a result, long-exposure photography

2233-469: The Equinox . These seasonal changes of solar azimuth come along with shifts of the twilight glow azimuth either. By rough knowledge of the solar azimuth on a given day, we are usually able to capture a distant mountain emerging on its disk. It's beneficial, especially during a hazy day when the captured object is not visible. It happens only rarely when the Sun is completely blocked by haze. This situation

2310-908: The Henninger Turm , a grain silo with tower restaurant and observation deck in Frankfurt, the bell tower of Berlin Olympic stadium , whose platform is accessible by an elevator, the winding tower of the mining industry museum in Bochum, which has an open-air observation deck to which an elevator runs or a wind turbine in Holtriem wind park, which is equipped with a closed platform accessible over stairs. Also aerial tramway support towers, which serve as observation tower (and aerial tramway station), were realized, like Torre Jaume I in Barcelona. Even on

2387-545: The Moon's orbit has 5.15° inclination on average, it translates into more various azimuths of the rise and set. During a major lunar standstill the range of these azimuths is about 10.3° wider than solar ones as it reaches a declination of ± 28.6°. In practice, the moonrise or moonset can happen above objects located far south or north against the extremal azimuth range observed for the sunrise and sunset. Another feature that slightly affects long-distance observations at night

Fichtelgebirge Club - Misplaced Pages Continue

2464-501: The UHF / VHF range ( FM sound broadcasting , TV, public rural broadcasting service, and portable radio service). In some cases this usage of the tower is at least as important as its use as an observation tower. Such towers are usually called TV towers or telecommunication towers. Many towers are also equipped with a tower restaurant and allow visitors access via elevators. Also common is the usage of water towers as observation towers. As in

2541-445: The contrast between the sky and distant features. In practice, the just-noticeable difference falls closer, reducing the visual range towards this direction. Because of the annual variations of Earth's axial tilt the range of sunrise/sunset azimuth changes accordingly. Basically, its changes occur daily with the exception of around-solstice periods when are barely noticeable. The quickest change of these azimuths falls roughly at

2618-420: The "free troposphere". It at some point defines the pace of visibility changes throughout the day following i.e. variations of humidity level. The relative humidity determines strongly the shape of aerosol particles, which eventually impacts their scattering properties. For instance, in a humid environment, light scattering is more effective, because the aerosol particles have regular shapes. In arid conditions,

2695-455: The Earth's atmosphere. The objects, whose appearance is different from others are recognizable and detectable easier. It refers to these mountains, where some rock protrusions stand on the top. The same situation applies to the mountains more prominent than adjacent ones. Unlike mountains, industrial and infrastructure objects are usually much thinner, which makes them hard to notice and photography because of their angular width. The location of

2772-570: The Moon orbits the Earth on a lunar monthly cycle, moonlight is only available intermittently, and varies from one day to the next. Specifically, unfavorable conditions occur when Moon shines lower above the horizon at twilight on the other side of the sky, where the sun is setting or is about to rise. The forward scattering makes distant objects in an antisolar direction (inside the Earth's shadow ) more difficult to spot. A combination of shaded Earth's atmosphere with relatively strong moonlight flattens

2849-417: The United States, there once were over 5,000 fire lookout towers. Areas where birdlife congregates are often associated with bird observation towers to assist with viewing. Hyperboloid structures have a hyperboloid shape that is usually lattice framework and an observation deck on top. There are also some very different observation towers, which don't fit into other categories. Examples for this are

2926-408: The air body including haze, the way of light distribution varies significantly. The haze layer causes a much wider angle of reflection because the solar beam is cloven on small particles. The same situation applies to the cloud deck marking the top of inversion layer . The cloud deck marks the area, where the dew point is reached, which ramps up the light reflection considerably. Observers located above

3003-406: The artificial light emission or reflection. Some skyscrapers can perfectly reflect the sunlight, producing glitters visible far away. On the other hand, if an object shines during the night, can be also visible much further than normally would be. The important element here is the plane of incidence , which is the angle between a ray incident on the surface and a perpendicular line to the surface at

3080-451: The atmosphere and light reflected from an object is absorbed and scattered by aerosol particles leading to significant deterioration of visibility. This regularity applies to the clear day when the sky is free of clouds. It happens very often, that cloudiness occurs. Clouds block the direct sunlight decreasing the light scattering at once. Thus the visual range is extended. The presence of clouds results in nonuniform solar illumination across

3157-408: The blueness of the sky can vary significantly depending on the density of aerosols. In the clearest conditions, which apply mainly to the "free atmosphere" above the inversion or planetary boundary layer the sky has a deep blue color, unlike inside the hazy layer, where it acts like pale blue or even bluish-white. which varies between minimum 1 hour in the planetary boundary layer to about 1 week in

Fichtelgebirge Club - Misplaced Pages Continue

3234-674: The case of TV towers the visitor will usually reach the observation deck by elevator, which is usually at a lower height above ground The typical height of the observation deck of water towers is 20 metres up to 50 metres, while the typical height of the platform of TV towers is from 80 metres up to 200 metres. Finally, some church towers may have observation decks, albeit often without an elevator. Many other buildings may have towers which allow for observation. In particular prior to World War I rambler associations, and some municipalities, built observation towers on numerous summits. Usually these towers were built of stone, however sometimes wood or iron

3311-514: The cloud cover stretches between their observation place and remote objects. However, the sky beyond these objects remains clear and bright. In turn, the contrast between the shaded distant feature and the bright sky beyond is the best, giving the highest chance to see this object. On the other hand, is fairly not possible to detect any details of object texture, as it remains completely shaded. Every landscape feature has its own color, texture, form, and brightness. The easiest feature to recognize from

3388-766: The club magazine Der Siebenstern and other heritage publications, youth work and youth support. In 1878 the Fichtel Mountains Section ( Sektion Fichtelgebirg ) of the German and Austrian Alpine Club was founded in Wunsiedel . From the outset it focussed only on the development of the Fichtel Mountains. In 1888 the section was disbanded and the FGV founded with its headquarters in Wunsiedel. For

3465-537: The club's activities to a standstill, it underwent a rapid regeneration which saw the foundation of numerous youth groups . In 1936 the headquarters of the club moved to Hof ; it returned to Wunsiedel in 2003/04. The club headquarters is at Theresienstraße 2, 95632 Wunsiedel in the Haus des Fichtelgebirgsvereins (near the market place and town hall). There is a service centre that offers advice and guidance about hiking, paths, conservation, culture and local history. There

3542-565: The contrast, making it less visible to an observer. On the other hand, the mountains located at the solar azimuth in the wintertime, when the Sun is low, usually shade themselves. Therefore, the albedo plays a minor role here. Planning long-distance observations often requires studying the destination area. The observer obviously can see distant objects on-site, although without decent tools is unable to identify them properly. The traditional tourist map might be not enough for this purpose, especially because of their primary objective. We have obviously

3619-465: The countryside, as they must rise over trees and other obstacles to ensure clear vision. Older control rooms have often been likened to medieval chambers. The heavy use of stone, iron, and wood in their construction helps to create this illusion. Modern towers frequently have observation decks or terraces with restaurants or on the roof of mountain stations of an aerial ropeway. Frequently observation towers are used also as location of radio services within

3696-522: The defined place worldwide. Peakfinder - another useful application, which covers the entire globe with the mountain database replicated from OpenStreetap . It's extremely useful for i.e. photography of sunset behind the distant landscape features. Heywhatsthat - the query-based tool, which renders the visibility cloak coverage from the given place called the "panorama". The atmospheric refraction analyses are available. QGIS Visibility analysis - advanced approach, which requires download of

3773-446: The desire existed to provide these towers with a tower restaurant and an observation deck, in order to make the building of towers more economical via admission fees and increased notability. Several water towers were also built with this in mind, but many have not survived to the modern day. Long distance observations Long-distance observation is any visual observation , for sightseeing or photography, that targets all

3850-410: The destination site by using at least a few tools available on the market. Ulrich Deuschle panorama generator - appears to be the best for investigating the far horizons from the place of the observation located both on the ground as well as on the fly. The application can render the distant horizon with a refraction coefficient considered giving the user the maximum estimated distance of view from

3927-786: The digital elevation model files but gives advanced results including the terrain and potential land coverage. Google Earth - by including the Field of View (FOV) feature can simulate the view of distant horizon in real outdoor conditions. Moreover, it includes the 3D layer and other man-made constructions created i.e. in Google Sketchup application previously and loaded into Google Earth . overlayaz - open-source application dedicated for long distance observations which helps in identification of objects in photos, provides precise distance measurements (using GeographicLib ) and creates output images with overlays. Viewfinderpanoramas -

SECTION 50

#1732772942300

4004-487: The distant objects located in the antisolar direction are better visible, because the backward scattering doesn't reduce the visibility as strongly as forward scattering. Quite the opposite situation occurs at twilight when twilight wedge becomes visible. At this moment the distant objects located in opposition to the solar azimuth are less visible due to vanishing contrast between the sky and ground, which loses its luminance quickly. The effect of light scattering depends on

4081-546: The elevator in the late 19th century made taller observation decks possible. Most notably, the Eiffel Tower and the Blackpool Tower were built in this era. Radio towers developed as combined sending and observation tower between 1924 and 1926 in the city of Berlin . After World War II , a great need for tall observation towers arose, due to their dual usage as television and radio transmitters. In large cities,

4158-451: The ground is able to observe some distant objects visible within the lower atmosphere, which can be i.e. distant plane passing just above the local horizon. This type of long-distance observation refers to a situation, where an observer or photography device isn't integrated with the ground at the moment of observation. In this case, the observation can be made from: The aerial observations can also include other objects, which are already in

4235-495: The ground. The ground-based long-distance observations cover the Earth 's landscape and natural surface features (e.g. mountains , depressions , rock formations , vegetation ), as well as manmade structures firmly associated with the Earth's surface (e.g. buildings , bridges , roads) that are located farther than the usual naked-eye distance from an observer. These objects may be natural or artificial. The natural are: The artificial ones are: The observer situated on

4312-408: The haze or cloud layer can effectively see the 3 major levels of brightness: from the inversion layer (clouds or haze), from the object, and also from the illuminated atmosphere beyond. These circumstances can be altered by snow coverage, which changes significantly the albedo of the distant feature surface unless it's forested. The high albedo of the distant object being just underneath the Sun flattens

4389-405: The horizon. When the Sun shines higher, less amount of light is scattered by the atmosphere toward the observer. Besides, the vista reflects more light, which results in more image-forming information (reflected photons from the vista) reaching the human eye. Otherworldly, the contrast detail and scene are enhanced. The specific situation occurs at twilight when the Sun is below the horizon. This

4466-412: The light reflection from some objects or clouds. Regardless of the degree of aerosol pollution in the atmosphere, we always list two major types of light scattering: - Forward scattering – typical for angular distance from the major source of light smaller than 90°, - Backward scattering – occurring at an angular distance higher than 90° from the major source of light. In daylight conditions,

4543-412: The line of sight and inhomogeneous irradiance of the atmosphere at once. Thick clouds determine a perfect light diffusion, which is next radiated uniformly in all directions. Considering the viewing line between the observer and the distant object, the illuminated aerosols directly by the Sun scatter light more efficiently on the contrary to shaded aerosols. For the observers, the best situation occurs when

4620-464: The long -, medium and shortwave range, first after World War II with introduction of radio services in UHF/VHF-range required towers only acting as antenna carriers, radio towers with observation decks built. For this the closed reinforced concrete construction way was nearly always used. Radio towers with observation decks often serve for TV transmission or for radio relay link services and are called therefore usually TV tower or telecommunication tower. As

4697-509: The major line. At the end of every line of light reflection, an observer can spot sudden darkening of the horizon called the Contrast triangle , which can push the visibility threshold a bit beyond. The light reflection at the angle of incidence applies also to various other sources of light not only direct but also scattered like clouds or the sky. Therefore, they appear mirror-like on the smooth water. The role of scattered light reflected on

SECTION 60

#1732772942300

4774-411: The mountains, making them easily distinguishable from others. Sometimes the prominent object can be hidden by another one standing somewhere in the middle between it and the observer. It happens usually inside the massive, often parallel mountain range, where a lot of peaks having a similar altitude block some distant mountain chains visible in the theoretical sense. An opposite situation takes place when

4851-403: The object more or less visible against the background. When the object's surface is brighter the light is reflected more effectively. It makes the reflected beam from this object stronger and more capable of reaching the distant observer. The object illuminance influences the scattering coefficient . Additionally, we can take into account the anthropogenic features of the object, which come down to

4928-403: The objects, visible from the extremal distance with the possibility to see them closely. The long-distance observations can't cover: With respect to the position of an observer and observed distant object, we can divide long-distance observations by the following types: The primary criterion is an integration of an observer with the Earth's surface or the object, which is firmly integrated with

5005-471: The observed object plays an important role, making it visible or not even from a small distance. The best visible are freestanding mountains or mountain ranges isolated from the mountain chain regardless of their relative altitude. Likewise, separated mountains, industrial telecoms, and infrastructure objects are also visible from the range because they are usually higher than the surrounding area. The telecommunications transmitters are often inherent elements of

5082-481: The point of incidence. In a practical sense, the angle of incidence is always equal to the angle of reflection. When the light source is low above the horizon, the light beam can be almost parallel to the surface producing the grazing incidence. Concluding, the observer can see the reflected beam on the surface exactly at the plane of incidence. This plane of incidence determines the Sun glitter appearance, which exact pattern

5159-417: The prospect platform can be open or in a closed room. An open platform is more favourable for photographing, since no reflexes at the disk arise, while closed platforms are for many visitors more pleasant. Prospect outlooks on TV towers are opened only at certain times and their entrance is possible only under payment of an admission fee. Also numerous highrise buildings have observation decks , sometimes even

5236-511: The pylons of suspension bridges were already observation decks installed, as the example of Nový Most in Bratislava shows. A very unusual observation tower is Pont basculant de la Seyne-sur-Mer . It was once a bascule bridge, now permanently put upright and used as observation tower. In Germany, observation towers first appeared on the countryside at the end of the 18th century. These early towers were often built by wealthy aristocrats . It

5313-405: The shape of aerosols is set by wind, which keeps them suspended for a long time. The scattering of light plays an important role in the visibility of distant features. Everything depends on three major factors, which are the presence of the major source of light, the degree of atmosphere clarity between the observer and distant feature, and the local pattern of the light scattering which depends on

5390-469: The size of the particles, whereas the weakest is typical for near-Rayleigh conditions and the strongest for dese haze particles suspended in the atmosphere. The substantial presence of aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere, especially within the Planetary boundary layer degrades the scene significantly. This phenomenon tends to produce a distinctive gray hue, which affects atmospheric transparency. Light from

5467-457: The sky that is still illuminated by the Sun. Considering the northern hemisphere after sunset, the wintertime will be supportive for objects visible at the south-western and western horizon, whereas, around the summer solstice, the north-western horizon will be the best or even the northern at the latitudes, where nautical white nights occur. Analogously to the Sun, the Moon can rise or set beyond some distant objects on Earth. The major difference

5544-418: The source of light is lower above the horizon. Since latitude plays a role in the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, light penetration is always less at higher altitudes. The light reflection on the water body has a diffuse character, which means, that the angle of incidence does not appear as a straight line. Its border is usually very fuzzy with a gentle reduction of single glitters when moving away from

5621-477: The static website presenting a multitude of panoramic views from some of the peaks worldwide. Currently, World records of the most distant landscape photography can be divided by: Other lines of sight: The longest line of sight in the British Isles is from Snowdon to Merrick – 232 km. This was photographed by Kris Williams in 2015. The longest line of sight that has been photographed within

5698-514: The waterbody is significant, especially during twilight at solar azimuth, which builds up a big contrast between the illuminated sky and the shaded distant landscape feature. The analog phenomenon, but usually short-lived is the Glint . Glint is only the moment when the light is reflected, but it can be seen far away due to the light strength, even from about 200 km distance. An analog phenomenon applies to clouds or haze. The common denominator here

5775-412: The worst. Because of the forward light scattering the haze concentrated nearby, the solar azimuth has a whitish appearance blocking the light reflected from an observed object's surface. On the other hand, the Sun travels across the sky changing its position against the observed object. It also reflects changes in the contrast of this object. The solar azimuth always goes along with its angle above

5852-657: Was also used. At nearly all these towers access to the observation deck , usually at a height of between 5 and 40 metres, is only possible by way of stairs. Most of these towers are used only for tourism, however some of these towers might also be used, at times of high forest fire risk, as fire observation posts or in times of war as military observation posts with anti-aircraft positions placed beside it. Further uses were not intended at most of these buildings, although some of these towers today now carry antennas for police/fire engine radios, portable radio or low power FM- and TV-transmitters. Older observation towers frequently have

5929-518: Was not until the mid-19th century that citizens took control of the construction of such towers. In Austria and Switzerland many observation towers were established by alpine and tourist associations, and continue to be cared for by them. In the Waldigen Mountains , many citizen committees were active. Because of the long reign of emperor Franz Joseph , many observation decks carry the name "anniversary observation platform". The invention of

#299700