Today on Monday Mysteries we unravel a rather intricate reflection. 

Our vacation apartment here in Vancouver is next to Stanley Park, and we have a view of the Lost Lagoon pond that is part of the park.  Every year at Christmas time they put up a special little “tree” with Christmas lights on a platform floating on the water in Lost Lagoon:

Tree of Lights on Lost Lagoon

Here’s a cropped photo that focusses on  just the tree and its reflection in the lagoon:

Tree of Lights on Lost Lagoon (detail)

Looking quickly at the reflection, you’d think that it’s merely a perfect reflection of the tree, from top to bottom, right?

But it’s not that simple. Look at this slightly lighter photo of the reflection, which more clearly shows the tree branches behind and among the lights:

Tree of Lights on Lost Lagoon (branches in tree lighter)

So far so good … except  the “tree” with lights on it isn’t a tree at all. It’s really just a pole with lights strung up to form a triangle tree shape. There are no branches on the pole – therefore, there should be no branches in the reflection. At least, it looked like the same lights-on-a-pole that they used to put up when we lived here years ago.  Since we arrived at night this time, it wasn’t until I saw the scene in the daylight that I understand what was happening:

Tree of Lights on Lost Lagoon (daytime)

You see, there is a real tree that is really blocking the view of the reflection – there is a reflection of that light pole in the daytime, but you can’t easily pick it out.  However, at night the reflection of the colored lights is bright enough to be seen through the branches of the tree in front of it. Which then makes it look the reflection of the pole with lights turn into  a reflection of a real tree with colorful lights on its branches. Quite an interesting effect.

But that’s not the only illusion in that reflection.  On the top of the pole there is a lighted diamond, which at first glance appears to be included in the reflection in the lagoon. However, take a look at this closeup of the daytime scene:

Tree of Lights and Tree in Front, Lost Lagoon

Nestled down at the bottom of that photo you can spot the top of  a street light. I then looked back at the photos of the reflected “tree”, and realized that the top of the reflection is NOT the real top of the pole, but rather the street light substituting for it. Here’s another look at just the reflection for reference:

Reflection of Tree of Lights on Lost Lagoon

A seemingly simple reflection revealed to be a complex illusion: quite a nice way back to a regular Monday Mystery post.