
Go back in time to , say 1959, Oak street bungalow:
"Dad, the moon looks huge tonight."
" Yes it does son."
"Why does it look so huge when in a few feet or in a few minutes it shrinks back to it's usual size?"
"Look it up son."
"Jeepers dad, can't you just for once, tell me the answer instead of saying; "look it up". I'd remember it just as much, hearing it from you as I will if I go look it up.."
"You need to get into the habit of looking things up."
"Never mind, I don't want to know."
Way to go bungalow Bob!
I still don't know why it looks that huge, but It still impresses me to the max.
No! No, I'm never going to look it up. If you want to tell me though, I'll be more than willing to listen. ;-)
6 Comments:
And why does the moon look enormous this time of year? It's one of life's little pleasures that always amazes me, too.
Tee hee - that sounds like an exchange I would have had with my father, too. Perhaps our fathers said that because, like us, they had no idea?!
I'll go look it up for you Rel. Back soon.
OK. Apparently the appearance of the full moon looking larger when it is nearer the horizon, in the early evening, is an optical illusion. This is created by the fact that near the horizon, there are other objects (eg trees, buildings) to which your eyes compare the moon. Then, as the moon rises, it becomes an object in the sky with no other objects nearby, and it appear smaller. You can prove this by measuring the size of the moon at each time (eg with calipers held at a certain distance from you - though surely you could use a simple ruler too?) - the image doen't change size - just our perception of its size changes.
Are you glad someone answered your question? Or did I just ruin it all for you?!
I have no clue why it looks larger either.....and I dont even care...lol....but it truly is magical to look at! Come over and see what I got!
Jellyhead,
Thanks. No you didn't ruin it. ;-)
It's an amazing sight and had corrected itself in the few miutes it took me to get to the store.
I always wanted to have such conversation with my dad. Never did, just went and looked it up.
rel
Whenever I see the moon like that, I always think, "harvest moon". Maybe that's just an Iowa thing.
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