Fun science going on here. The horizon doesnt extend nearly far enough to see the chicago skyline from this distance on its own. The light would be blocked by the earth. The light is refracted thru the atmosphere in such a way where you can see it from that distance
It's also nowhere near 50 miles. It's 35 from the furthest point it could be, and about 30 from the closest it could be (and still be in Indiana Dunes). Let's call it 32. That cuts the top* bottom 682 feet off of the closest buildings. At 50 miles, nothing could be visible by normal means and you would need to be either above it, or have it refracted as you said.
But at the actual "straight-line" distance, it's only about 30 miles. Also, there are only about 30 buildings in chicago that are >650 feet tall. And...I'd wager we're seeing most of them in this photo.
Additional-Bluejay96 on September 30th, 2021 at 17:24 UTC »
THIS BLEW MY MIND
Meta_Professor on September 30th, 2021 at 19:00 UTC »
100% sure proof that the earth is flat! Wake up sheeple!
/s
Spartan2470 on September 30th, 2021 at 19:01 UTC »
Credit to the photographer, Dan Podobinski (aka dans_hot_rod_photo on Instagram).
Per /u/DustyJB24 over here:
Also, per /u/xSTSxZerglingOne over here: