Why does the moon always look bigger at the horizon?
This topic has been in the UK press over the last couple of days, as the angle of the moon this week made it appear vast on the horizon.
Nice to see that the physics behind this is seeping into mainstream press:
Article is by Patrick Moore, famous sky-watcher in the UK.
Also, yesterday’s Astronomy Picture of the Day included a link to an earlier APotD using multiple exposures to prove the Moon Illusion is, indeed, only an illusion. Cool stuff.
Even the BBC has something to say about it.
Has anyone here seen the moon in it’s huge state? Apparently the moon around 20 years ago in England (and the last couple of nights according to the BBC) took up nearly the entire horizon.
My wife vehemently disagrees with the ponzo explanation as she claims the moon was far too large to measure accurately.
Has anyone here seen the moon this large and also done the ‘arm length measurement’ experiment?
Yes. It’s the same size. Really. Now, if it is actually touching the horizon, there’ll be some distortion in size (and shape, even) due to refraction. But otherwise, it’s the same size. Honest.
What does this mean? 359 degrees?
Measuring the moon by holding a ruler or paperclip at arm’s length is not accurate enough. I used a telescopic lens (500mm, to make the image of the moon as large as I could) on a 35mm SLR camera, and took photos, and printed them on 8x10 paper. I couldn’t measure any difference.
Since that column is up again, I’m bumping this thread.
And BTW, the fourth paragraph from the end, beginning “I know you’re not infallible…,” should be in italics.