See a Huge Moon Illusion Wednesday(Today June 18)

See a Huge Moon Illusion Wednesday(Today June 18)

news.yahoo.com

As the full moon rises this Wednesday evening, June 18, many people will be tricked into thinking it's unusually large

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The moon illusion, as it's known, is a trick in our minds that makes the moon seem bigger when it's near the horizon. The effect is most pronounced at full moon. Many people swear it's real, suggesting that perhaps Earth's atmosphere magnifies the moon.


But it really is all in our minds. The moon is not bigger at the horizon than when overhead.


The illusion will be particularly noticeable at this "solstice moon," coming just two days before summer starts in the Northern Hemisphere. The reason, according to NASA, lies in lunar mechanics: The sun and full moon are like kids on a see-saw; when one is high, the other is low. This week's high solstice sun gives us a low, horizon-hugging moon and a strong, long-lasting version of the illusion.

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I think this is something more, and NASA wants to trick us again by saying we are dum and stupid and that our mind is playing tricks on us.

What you guys think?

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's an illusion as they say.... against the horizon you have objects that you can reference the distance to the moon. This tricks your perception into thinking that is closer than it really is.

Here is a good example of how your mind can make up illusions.
www.youtube.com...

The hollow face example is not the same as the moon, but it is relative to how the mind can be tricked quite easily.

I don't know about it being any sort of "NASA trick", as we often are presented with rather huge harvest moons here in the northeast come fall.

One thing's for sure, I'll have the scope out tonight and hopefully the minimal cloud cover won't interfere.

Thanks for the heads-up, mhector3500.

 

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


nomatter how big, no chance to see anything here in the UK haha

Originally posted by mhector3500
I think this is something more, and NASA wants to trick us again by saying we are dum and stupid and that our mind is playing tricks on us.

What you guys think?

Do I think it is an illusion? Yes.

I don't think NASA has a remote control for the moon so that they can change it or some way to control our perception.

I did notice the near full moon yesterday seemed quite impressive.

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


Yeah, i wish i had a telescope to take a closer look at the moon tonight! you could probably see larger things too like craters, with a lot of details, who knows!

Originally posted by roadgravel

I did notice the near full moon yesterday seemed quite impressive.

As did I, roadgravel. There was little if any cloud cover here last night [central PA] and the moon was Extremely full and bright. I didn't break out the scope, but it was quite the sight nonetheless.

 

Originally posted by mhector3500


I think this is something more, and NASA wants to trick us again by saying we are dum and stupid and that our mind is playing tricks on us.

What you guys think?

Nope, it's an illusion. Take a picture of it and compare the sizes. Or, you can bust out a tape measure and measure it's diameter from a position equidistant from your face when the moon is rising, then again when the moon is at its apex.

It's true I tells ya.

Originally posted by airteck
It's an illusion as they say.... against the horizon you have objects that you can reference the distance to the moon. This tricks your perception into thinking that is closer than it really is.

Here is a good example of how your mind can make up illusions.
www.youtube.com...

The hollow face example is not the same as the moon, but it is relative to how the mind can be tricked quite easily.

I was wondering if i took a picture or something will it show up smaller? or is it the horizon that makes it look much bigger? I thought it could be our minds playing tricks but if it is the horizon, than probably a picture will come out the same.

I think this is something more, and NASA wants to trick us again by saying we are dum and stupid and that our mind is playing tricks on us.

It's an illusion, one that I will be outside checking out tonight. I don't think it's any NASA plot presented because they think we are "dum." Although, it wouldn't take much proof to show that many of us are "dum."

Taking a picture will result in the moon being the same size (provided all picture settings are exactly the same).

It actually takes a lot of work to mimic the 'large moon' illusion on film.

if you hold out an object in the picture (like a quarter) you can verify that the moon is the same size in both pictures.

Thanks for the heads up I love when this happens.

As the others said it is an illusion. I went to school in Arizona for a few years and we'd go out to the desert to watch the full moon rise like this and it really is something to behold.

Sometimes it's a really nice orange color too which is just breath taking.

Got's to grab my camera!

Spiderj

D'oh! double post!

Spiderj

[edit on 6/18/2008 by Spiderj]

en.wikipedia.org...

Even wiki's got it covered.


I didn't know this though.

It must also be kept in mind that people differ in how they experience the illusion (and some have no Moon illusion)[citation needed] so a single theory may not fit all people.

They have most of the theories covered there.

Thanks for this info, one night last year I was driving on 95 on my way from work, it was about 10 or so at night and it was the full harvest moon, I was driving south from DC and looked over to my left the moon looked humongous I mean it was unbelievable and it looked close to the horizon like you said, but only about 10 minutes later and when I got to where I was going a few miles down the road and then turned towards it, it was much higher in the sky and much smaller this baffled me, it was almost like a magnifying glass, I was surprised but until I saw your post I really did not give it that much more thought but it sort of explains possibly what I saw.

NASA has a link on this as well. Solstice Moon.


I remember the first time I saw one. My son was riding in the car with me and we crested a hill and there was the moon and it looked HUGE!!! My kid, who was about 16 freaked out and started yelling that something was wrong.

It's funny looking back on it but to be honest, I was concerned myself.

Its nice reading your thoughts about this subject thanks alot! Iam also looking forward to seeing this tonight! Hope i see a ufo passing by!

I have over the years noticed that the full moon low near the horixon always appears larger. I learned in basic 5th grade science that it is due to the angle of the moon the light passed through more of our atmosphere which contains water and water has a magnifying effect. When to Moon is higher in the sky there is atmosphere for us to see through and less moisture therefore less magnification.

Is this too simple an explaination? It makes perfect sense to me.