Low-Hanging Moon Explained 381
gollum123 wrote to mention a BBC article which explains the low-hanging moon of the past few nights. From the article:"For the past few nights the moon has appeared larger than many people have seen it for almost 20 years. It is the world's largest optical illusion, and one of its most enduring mysteries. The mystery of the Moon Illusion, witnessed by millions of people this week, has puzzled great thinkers for centuries. There is still no agreed on explaination for why the moon appears bigger when it's on the horizon than when it's high in the night sky."
Bruce Almighty flashback (Score:5, Insightful)
I was thinking the same thing a few nights ago, watching the moon rise
over LA. Then I considered, "Near the ground, I consider it in proportion to the objects around it. In the sky, I have no reference"
Great thinkers? Centuries? Bah.
Now what they need to figure out is how to fix the pollution in LA. The
moon is red until it gets above the smog. Well, that is if you're not
*IN* the smog.
Perception of distance and perspective (Score:3, Insightful)
Explained? RTFA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who writes these titles? Do they even read the submission, let alone the article... (extra scorn if the submitter wrote the title)
Wacky. And I read the article too (before it got posted here). There's definitely no explanation... a couple theories, sure, but they debunk the theories right in the article.
- StaticLimit
"Low-hanging" moon? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not since June 1987 has the moon been this low in the sky
Umm... how about twice a day, when it rises and sets?
Who writes this crap?
Re:Didn't you just (Score:2, Insightful)
It's about a distance frame of reference, not a size frame of reference.
Re:Bruce Almighty flashback (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, no it's not. That would be silly. Look in a mirror, raise your hand, and try to conceive of the image of your hand going down. The reason mirrors flip left and right is because left and right are defined relative to which direction is forward, and mirrors flip which direction is forward. Up and down are defined more absolutely in terms of which direction the Earth is.