A scene you will probably never get to see in person. This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point. An amazing photo and not one easily duplicated.
Comments: To paraphrase the caption above, this is very definitely a scene you will never get to see in person - not on planet earth, anyway - because it’s physically impossible for the moon to appear so much larger than the sun when they are seen together with the naked eye. Why? Because, given their relative distances from the earth, the moon and the sun subtend the same angle in the sky, which is a fancy astrophysical way of saying that from our earthly vantage point they should always appear to be of equal size.
Granted, there is a famous optical illusion by virtue of which either heavenly body may seem somewhat larger than usual when it appears close to the horizon, but that is obviously not the explanation for the disparity seen here. We can only conclude that this is a computer-generated image or photo-realistic painting of an imaginary landscape, not an actual photograph.
The folks at Snopes.com have traced its likely origin to a German artist named Inga Nielsen, who apparently created it using Terragen, a program for generating background scenery for games, etc."
Yhis was quoted on a website I found and Cecil rebutted it as fake. I am not disputing the validity of the picture. I dispute Cecil’s comments. The picture may have been a fake - I have alway thought so - but the fact that the moon looks larger on the horizon than straight up is NOT bunk. I personally have seen it a million times here in Florida, and if you don’t think it looks larger, well come here and try it yourself. It isn’t because of clutter on the ground. It seriously will look at 8AM like it is as big as a silver dollar held at arms length at 8AM and like a dime
at 7PM. I also know that is because of refraction. If you can offer some other explanation besides refraction for this phenomena, then please let me in on it. Otherwise, stop trying to explain away things you have absolutely no idea about and maybe start selling chamois or “magic putty” on late night TV. Asshole!!
And for a final proof, just take a picture of the “big” moon, and take one of a normal moon. (with the same zoom setting on each one obviously) The size of the moon in each photo will always be the same
I believe that Cecil did agree that the moon looks larger on the horizon. That effect is termed the “moon illusion”. It is termed thus because while the moon appears larger to the observer, objective measurements demonstrate that the visual size is not different. It is an illusion.
Have you actually held a coin up at arm’s length, or are you just describing your perception of the size difference? Because most people agree it looks bigger.
As Cecil mentions, the refraction plays a role very close to the horizon as the shape of the moon distorts from round to oblate (i.e. circularish to squashed). Refraction, however, does not account for the size appearance as the Moon is a couple of degrees off the horizon.
As Cecil explains in his column, Ptolemy attributed the illusion to the perception that the sky overhead is a “flattened bowl”, and that overhead the “sky” is closer than at the horizon. Because of this perception, the size of the moon is a mental comparison against the distance of the background, and that causes the different perception of the relative size of the moon.
Frank Restle’s observation may play a role, but it is not critical to the illusion. The illusion can be observed looking out over the ocean, for instance, where there are no buildings and trees to compare against.