I have to share this.
Stopping by Mt. Soledad on Tuesday was a lark. I work in an area of San Diego called Point Loma, and my commute home takes me to north county inland on I-15. But on driving out from Point Loma, I could tell the horizon was sharp enough and that maybe I'd be able to get some good sighting against it. So, on the spur of the moment, I decided to give Soledad a try. It's been years since I'd been to the overlook that sits atop La Jolla. 800"+ with coastal views from Baja to Orange County.
I got there about an hour and half before sunset and there were very few people there. I found a spot on the lawn, near the edge of a drop, that gave me a clear view to the WNW, because I did hope to capture a sunset with the leveling rig. It was gusty at times, but I set up the cube/water level first. Inevitably, I had people saunter by to ask me what I was doing.
I have to confess, I'm shy about admitting what I'm doing is to check on a flat earth/globe earth debate issue. I'm about as certain we live on a globe earth than just about anything else in life, so it's a valid question why I am even bothering with all this. It's not like I want to rock anyone's beliefs. But I guess not wanting to admit I've dived into this reveals a level of embarrassment that I am. I love the passion that flat earth people have, and I think I'm just fascinated by what drives that passion. Plus, I do enjoy a good debate/discussion, and who knows? Even if I think I know things, I can learn more by challenging what I think I know and examining why I think I know it. I feel like I've learned a lot. Not to persuade me to change my mind, but to affirm what I thought I already knew to greater degree of certainty.
Anyway, I concocted a specious story that I was just an amateur photography and wanted to capture the setting sun through a wired cube to create a demonstration of perspective lines that I would add to the photos in post. Sort of an art project, and maybe a demo for art students. Not sure if it was convincing, but I couldn't admit I was doing a project to prove/disprove a flat earth claim.
The crowd started to grow as sunset approached, and as expected, people asked what I was doing. I actually had very nice conversations with several people, and one woman spent much time talking to me while we waited for sunset.
Afterward, when the sun was gone and it was turning twilight, a young man with a bike idled over and, like others, asked what this was all about. I gave him my story, and added the fact that I wanted to show how the lines of perspective converged on the horizon. Well, he apparently was already familiar with the concept and mentioned the flat earth, saying that he had looked into it (videos, mainly) and felt there was much to make you wonder.
Yikes. I wanted so badly to fess up and admit that this was precisely to investigate a flat earth/globe earth disagreement. Instead, I acted like I was unaware of the controversy and told him that in my line of work, the fact that the earth is a sphere is a given and a flat earth couldn't be hidden. I was dismissive of the flat earth notion, but there I was, secretly doing a flat earth experiment.
I wondered if maybe he might browse by this forum and recognize these photos, maybe from the green water and Soledad location. If you are here, dude; I'm sorry I didn't come out of the closet with you. It would have been great to have a face-to-face conversation with even a flat earth agnostic. I've never met anyone in person who was (or at least would admit it.) I think I came across as being totally dismissive of the flat earth notion, like such a thing wouldn't be worth my time. But that was for my own ego.
I think from now on, when people ask, I'm just going to be honest and explain the concept and why I'm doing it. I figure eventually I'll put it all together in a Web page, in case anyone wants to reference the results. I don't think I'll make a video, though that seems to be the favorite way to communicate both globe and flat earth arguments.
Not sure if that's interesting or "on topic," but thought I'd mention it. You just can't set something like this up in public and not expect to draw attention.