

Biggest and Brightest Full Moon of 2010 Tonight - Jach
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/biggest-full-moon-2010-100129-tm.html

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TallGuyShort
They talk about the moon appearing larger near the horizon, but they say
astronomers and psychologists don't agree on how to explain it. First of all,
if a camera is capable of recording the difference, what do psychologists have
to do with it? And second, isn't it just refraction through the atmosphere?
Light's coming in at a steeper angle and passing through more of the
atmosphere than it is when the moon is higher in the sky. I've never heard any
other theory.

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chaosmachine
_"High moons and low moons make the same sized spot. ... Foreground objects
trick your brain into thinking the moon is bigger than it really is."_

[http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/20jun_moonillusion.h...](http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/20jun_moonillusion.htm)

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TallGuyShort
Ooh - I misread - I thought the article said that a camera _would_show the
size difference. That is interesting.

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mixmax
I actually had a hard time believing this, since the moon seems to be so much
bigger when it's near the horizon.

True to science I set up an experiment with a stick and a caliper - I could
look from one end of the stick to the caliper fastened at the other end, and
slide it so that the circumference of the moon would exactly fit. I could then
look at the moon both when it was high in the sky, and when it was just above
the horizon.

Lo and behold - they were the exact same size, even though it didn't look that
way at all. What I learned is that you can't always trust your senses.

