What about a telescope aimed at the horizon?

Yes, it depends on those factors because the horizon for an observer with an unaided eye is not as distant as the horizon for an observer with an optical device.  If the ship is moving away from the observer, eventually it WILL disappear.  UNLESS you INCREASE your magnification.  No, I have never tried it myself.

  I use the knowledge I have in my brain already. 

This is why 29's photos above are not valid.  He didn't zoom in enough to see the entire ship.

It's a pity because if you tried, you'd be quite a bit shaken in your beliefs.  I disagree.
But because it's unlikely that you will go out and try it in the coming hours :-), let's move on a little bit. A ship is hard to see in the distance because all we can rely on are the reflected light rays coming through the atmosphere. So, what about the sun that, we all agree about that no doubt, has enough light to be visible from quite some distance? Have you ever tried this little experiment I started with, lying down flat, jumping up when it settles and see it settle once more?

Quote

This is why 29's photos above are not valid.  He didn't zoom in enough to see the entire ship.

The photographer did zoom in.  Nothing changed.  The bottom half was still obscured.  Zooming in further would not have changed that.

I already know that visible distance increases with height.

Neither version.  In your model, if the sun is not seen at sunset or sunrise, there would be no residual light.  The Earth would BLOCK it.  There is though...because even though the sun has been visually compressed by the horizon to where you no longer see it, the light still travels for miles until it gets dark.  Now all you REs, tell me how light bends in your model because that is what light has to do if it moves below the curvature of the Earth.  Remember, I'm talking about how light is still visible even when the sun itself is not.

Remember, I'm talking about how light is still visible even when the sun itself is not.

Look up atmospheric optics.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. I'll gladly do it but let's move in an orderly fashion. We should discuss the main phenomenon first, shouldn't we? The sun itself. Let's find a plausible explanation of why the sun is visible for quite some time and then it disappears so suddenly. It has to go out of your visibility range, there is no other place it can escape to so that you won't see the massive amount of light it radiates. What happens in those few seconds around sunset? How does it transform from a setting but still very much visible Sun to invisible in a matter of seconds?

Neither version.  In your model, if the sun is not seen at sunset or sunrise, there would be no residual light.  The Earth would BLOCK it.  There is though...because even though the sun has been visually compressed by the horizon to where you no longer see it, the light still travels for miles until it gets dark.  Now all you REs, tell me how light bends in your model because that is what light has to do if it moves below the curvature of the Earth.  Remember, I'm talking about how light is still visible even when the sun itself is not.

It moves at the same speed at sunset as it does across the sky during the day.  It may seem to move faster on the horizon only because it's movement is more obvious with the Earth in it's foreground.  In the sky, you have no static objects to compare it to.

But what actually happens when it goes out of sight in the last seconds of the sunset?

Quote from: EarthIsASpaceship on January 28, 2014, 10:38:10 AM

Neither version.  In your model, if the sun is not seen at sunset or sunrise, there would be no residual light.  The Earth would BLOCK it.  There is though...because even though the sun has been visually compressed by the horizon to where you no longer see it, the light still travels for miles until it gets dark.  Now all you REs, tell me how light bends in your model because that is what light has to do if it moves below the curvature of the Earth.  Remember, I'm talking about how light is still visible even when the sun itself is not.

You can still see at night, all night.

Quote from: Spank86 on January 28, 2014, 10:57:11 AM

Quote from: EarthIsASpaceship on January 28, 2014, 10:38:10 AM

Neither version.  In your model, if the sun is not seen at sunset or sunrise, there would be no residual light.  The Earth would BLOCK it.  There is though...because even though the sun has been visually compressed by the horizon to where you no longer see it, the light still travels for miles until it gets dark.  Now all you REs, tell me how light bends in your model because that is what light has to do if it moves below the curvature of the Earth.  Remember, I'm talking about how light is still visible even when the sun itself is not.

You can still see at night, all night.

You know, this got me to thinking....this is off topic but I just want to mention this.  If you look at images of the sun from space or check out the FULL version of Felix B's jump and notice how small the sun is.....it is TINY.  It does not emit much light at all!  So to say that it lights up an entire half of the Earth just doesn't make sense.

It's moving farther away from the observer.

Quote from: EarthIsASpaceship on January 28, 2014, 11:09:28 AM

It's moving farther away from the observer.

That it does for sure. However, what interests me most is what happens in the last seconds. Up to then, it loses its brightness rather gradually. In the last hour of the day, approximately, it becomes gradually dimmer and dimmer. Still, it doesn't simply fade into oblivion at the end of the day. It is, although much less bright than during the day, is still sufficiently bright to show a nice, orange-reddish glowing object that disappears much more rapidly during the last phase than it was dimming earlier. This speeding up of the disappearing process is what intrigues me and, unfortunately, we yet failed to find an explanation for it, didn't we?

To formulate it slightly differently: why does it jump suddenly out of our visibility range when it was moving away from us steadily but nearly not as abruptly?

The only way it works is if you consider light to have a ballistic trajectory.

Quote from: Spank86 on January 28, 2014, 12:05:14 PM

The only way it works is if you consider light to have a ballistic trajectory.

Sorry, that still doesn't cut it for me. No matter how it goes away from me, considering that it can't disappear (I might not be able to see it if it's too far away but it's there somewhere, isn't it?),

But if light had a ballistic trajectory, it could disappear.

most images of the sun are through filters for obvious reasons.

Quote from: Scintific Method on January 27, 2014, 04:22:19 PM

Then why is it that the sun at sunset is the same (measurable) size as at midday, and too intense to look at, then 5 minutes later is completely out of sight?

That has nothing to do with this topic.

Sorry, that still doesn't cut it for me. No matter how it goes away from me, considering that it can't disappear (I might not be able to see it if it's too far away but it's there somewhere, isn't it?), I'd very much expect to see it at least to dim back to something like the stars before I actually stop being able to see it at all. After all, stars are smaller, much less bright and I can still see them with the naked eye. What happens to the Sun that it suddenly skips all those brigthness grades between its sunset shape and the brightness (or dimness) grade of the stars and even beyond?

So, just before dawn, the sky grows brighter and brighter thanks to Rayleigh Scattering, then the sun rises. As soon as the sun becomes visible, it is too bright to look at directly with any comfort (assuming clear conditions). It remains about this bright for the entire day (12 hours on average), until it sets, at which time it is still too intense to look directly at safely until it has completely vanished (which happens in a matter of minutes or seconds, depending on your latitude). I still have yet to see a plausible explanation of how this can happen on a flat earth.

Oh YOU didn't take those photos?

Then you know nothing about the photographer's camera and settings, do you?  Well he probably had a Fixed Focal length.

You're one to talk about not having experience.

You admitted you aren't a professional photographer.

http://www.photomodeler.com/kb/entry/65/

It's good that you are interested enough to ask these questions.  Before I explain what I think happens, let me ask this.  Have you ever seen the sun on the horizon through one of those huge telescopes the observatories use?

Can you describe it?

The disappearing ship (hull first) is therefore no proof of the World’s alleged rotundity. We can surely all agree on that one?