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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 8814553" data-attributes="member: 6787503">I’m not an optics expert, but wouldn’t it be a matter of the area of the cross section of the image rather than a single dimension (height)? If so, and if we can suppose that our roughly six foot tall human is about 1.5 feet wide at the shoulders (as I am, roughly) and that the white tower is built with similar proportions so that our 200 foot tall tower has a diameter of 50 feet, then the cross-sectional image presented to the viewer would have over 1,000 times the area so resolvable at over 2,000 miles. That sounds wrong to me, but I live on a round planet. (ETA: After thinking about this for a moment, I can see I'm completely wrong. In my defense, I hadn't had my coffee yet this morning when I started writing this.)But I agree it's likely there's something magical about the Meneltarma and the farsighted as well. This jibes with the belief of the Dunedain in later years that the peak of the Meneltarma could still be found sometimes rising above the sea and, if found, that one could glimpse from there the Undying Lands while standing at sea level.</blockquote>