SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post

Skybird · 11-29-12, 07:20 PM

There are two possible explanations.

Either it is the well-described moon illusion, that means your brain interprets a moon close to the horizon as bigger in size because the visual impression gets scaled diffrently inside the brain against objects of known size you happen to see close to the horizon line. High in the sky, the lack of known objects in the visual field means the moon gets scaled slightly smaller in your brain.

Or it is the moon in a closer position to Earth indeed, because it is moving along an elliptical orbit around Earth and thus sometimes is closer and sometimes is more distant. The distance varies between 363 and 405 thousand kilometers.

11-29-12, 07:20 PM	#2
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,674 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	There are two possible explanations. Either it is the well-described moon illusion, that means your brain interprets a moon close to the horizon as bigger in size because the visual impression gets scaled diffrently inside the brain against objects of known size you happen to see close to the horizon line. High in the sky, the lack of known objects in the visual field means the moon gets scaled slightly smaller in your brain. Or it is the moon in a closer position to Earth indeed, because it is moving along an elliptical orbit around Earth and thus sometimes is closer and sometimes is more distant. The distance varies between 363 and 405 thousand kilometers. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.