Why are mountains barely visible just a few dozen miles away?
Really? And where do you live that "are mountains barely visible just a few dozen miles away"!
Much of the time quite clearly quite "a few dozen miles". Look at
The mountain in the background, just right of centre, I believe Mt Warning, about 47 km, as the crow (and we have plenty) flies (and we have plenty of those too outback!).
Not only that but looking at scenery the view is impeded by the atmosphere all the way.
But just after sunset, the flat earth sun would be hidden by only the equivalent of 30 or so kilometres of atmosphere.
With the brilliance of the sun, it should easily be seen with a telescope at that distance. Seeing the extremely bright sun against a black background should be easy.
Look here is Mercury, close to the horizon. Mercury is immensely less bright than the sun, yet is always close to the sun:
Niko Powe in Illinois wrote on October 10: “Venus, Regulus, Mars, Jupiter, the moon, Mercury, and me up in Kewanee this morning!” | | Mercury was much harder to see than the other planets, but Ashley Fuggle caught Mercury on the morning of October 9! Image taken from Folkestone Kent UK. |
Strange how Mercury and Venus can be seen close to the horizon, but there is no sign of the immensely brighter sun.
Besides all that, as you very well know, the sun does not "fade from view", but appears to be hidden
behind something as in the many sunset videos on YouTube:
Spendid Green Flash - Sunset 18 fev 2015, hoporion
Still I guess all flat earthers
wear blinkers when outside to avoid being enlightened by uncomfortable evidence!