# Why does the sky look like a dome? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822 "2009-01-24T20:39:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/21 "2009-01-25T01:25:19Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > Sometimes an picture is worth 1000 words. A google image search of [earths atmosphere]([Google Search](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=earths) atmosphere&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) comes up with a few images like [this](http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2007/12/20/earths-atmosphere_18.jpg), [this](http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/tour_images/atmosphere.gif), or [this](http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1238/users/wkho2/Atmosphere/atmosphere-couche_f.jpg) which might help with mentally picturing the answer. The [mesosphere](http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1238/users/wkho2/Atmosphere/atmosphere-couche_f.jpg)is a cube? ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/22 "2009-01-25T01:45:47Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > The [mesosphere](http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1238/users/wkho2/Atmosphere/atmosphere-couche_f.jpg)is a cube? Heh, apparently so, and the sun is located in it. I think we’ve found the cause for global warming. Also, there is a [grid](http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2007/12/20/earths-atmosphere_18.jpg) pattern all throughout space. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/23 "2009-01-25T02:01:57Z")
Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, stains the white radiance of eternity. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/24 "2009-01-25T02:56:18Z")
When there’s intermittent cloud cover stretching to the horizon, the clouds at the very limit of vision can be as much as a hundred miles away, enough that they are appreciably tilted away from your local “down”. So like **Broomstick** said, the atmosphere really is like a dome. ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/25 "2009-01-25T10:55:40Z")
Wow… I had no idea the atmosphere was so large! I thought it was relatively thin, like an orange peel. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/26 "2009-01-25T11:40:35Z")
Silly nerds. The sky looks like a dome because Ed Harris wills it. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/27 "2009-01-25T11:45:55Z")
I think the OP has the question the wrong way round. The sky looks really, really big. People who want to build a structure that is really, really big do their best to imitate the shape of the sky. A dome is the best they can come up with. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/28 "2009-01-25T12:58:59Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Think about it. EONS ago, stuff that was important to humans above was pretty close. Trees and the stuff in them. Stuff towards the horizion was physically much further away. Not surprising that that knowledge could be genetically hardwired into our brains. You don’t have to think about eons ago. Apart from celestial objects, the things you’re most likely to see in the sky are clouds. A cloud above you may possibly be 30,000 - 40,000 feet up but is more likely to be 5,000’ - 10,000’ or lower. 10,000’ is about 2 miles. Earthly things directly above you really aren’t very far away. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822/29 "2009-01-25T13:50:04Z")
[quote=“1920s Style “Death Ray”, post:28, topic:482822”] You don’t have to think about eons ago. Apart from celestial objects, the things you’re most likely to see in the sky are clouds. A cloud above you may possibly be 30,000 - 40,000 feet up but is more likely to be 5,000’ - 10,000’ or lower. 10,000’ is about 2 miles. Earthly things directly above you really aren’t very far away. [/QUOTE] The eons ago part was for time for evolution to hardwire our brains to some extent. And though clouds above are closer than stuff torwards the horizon is true, the diffence between what practically mattered to humans above vs forward is even greater. The top of a tree vs walking miles to the horizon. As for perception. I see the sky, particularly the night sky, as a big dome. But I’ve been a serious amateur astronomer for a long time, so my mental picture of what I see is probably different than some one just looking at pretty stuff. But I have noticed if I try not to think about it too hard, even letting myself zone out so to speak, the impression of a very flattened dome reappears in my mind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sky-look-like-a-dome/482822.md?page=1)