August 20, 2013 - The Impossible Photo

[SIZE="5"]Can it be done?



Is it real or is it a composite?

Found on Imgur[/SIZE]

Cute. Of course it can be done.

Pretty easily too. You just move the camera up and down until they are aligned.

Tricky in a car, though. And, for added difficulty, there are three points lining up, not just two. Two on the foreground hill, and one on the background hill.

Now wait a minute...

The car is supposedly going one direction (frontwards).
The "rear view mirror" is supposedly showing this "frontwards" scene ?

Looks more to me like the actual rear view mirror has been removed,
so we are only looking thru the frame.
... and possibly through a movable clear glass filter that is used
to deflect bright headlights from cars that are following at night.

It's supposed to be hills behind and in front of the car lining up in the mirror. If it was a transparent "mirror", you wouldn't see whatever that white thing in the corner is.

HM, I think I disagree.

I think the grey thing inside the frame is a hinge gismo that holds the mirror or glass
that the driver uses to flip the night-time reflected (rear view) image out of sight.

Here's a link that explains what I am trying to say....

The mechanism to adjust the mirror is in the middle, is part of the joint between the mirror and the stem (said attachment is not visible in the picture; it's behind the mirror), and it wouldn't be a different colored plastic from the mirror frame.

It could be a composite of two shots of the same hills, but I don't think it's just a transparent mirror frame.

That light colored thing in the mirror is the 3rd brake light in the rear window.

glatt;873914 wrote:

That light colored thing in the mirror is the 3rd brake light in the rear window.

My first thought was the corner of the headrest, but I like your idea better.

It's a car.

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Here is Google Street view of the same place (different time)
You can play with the location of the street view image.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=edgewood+rd&hl=en&ll=37.48378,-122.298435&spn=0.000817,0.001321&sll=37.381129,-122.151648&sspn=0.000412,0.00066&t=h&hnear=Edgewood+Rd&layer=c&cbll=37.483959,-122.298415&panoid=ORsZGdWE9cT3_UqNR2ghyQ&cbp=12,43.13,,0,1.11&z=20

And here is the rear view mirror pic along with it.

Here is Google's Street View (rear facing) view at the same location...

I wouldn't presume that the mirror is perpendicular to the direction of travel

There is a bald spot in roughly the right location on that rear-view hill. And the blue-with distance background hill is a decent match as well.

I neglected to flip the rearward view horizontally for the mirror image.

This is the image that should appear in the OP's rear-view mirror...
The distant (blue) ridge looks valid, as does HM's "bald area", except the distance from the car doesn't look quite right/

glatt;873914 wrote:

That light colored thing in the mirror is the 3rd brake light in the rear window.

Ah come on!! Don't be ridiculous. Anyone can see it's the forehead of a perusing Alien which makes the whole picture even more amazing.

Lamplighter;873939 wrote:

Here is Google Street view of the same place (different time)

How did you do that?

How did you find the location?

CaliforniaMama;874288 wrote:

How did you do that?

How did you find the location?

Short term memory fails, but I think it was down in the Comments of your OP link.

ETA: WRONG, not the Comments.
It was in the link labeled "SOURÇE" on the right side of your OP link.