New 20 ounce tumblers available now! Forum donation credit with purchase. https://www.wildguzzi.com/Products/products.htm#Tumbler
Thank you Nic
There is a bright one in the western sky every night, it disappears to the NW. I used to watch them at dawn, the last stars to show brightness are the planets.
My home town is 37 deg South 143 deg East.Bottom right hand corner of Australia. That bright orange light overhead at midnight...Is that Mars..?
Is that Mars..?Yes. Rises around 1800, and for the first hr or so looks pretty orange and big
Yes "looks big" as in appears big.Incidentally Nic, what's the explanation for the moon, which is not as bright when it rises as later when it's higher, but looks bigger as it rises and sets?They used to say it was the atmosphere til someone worked out that should make it smaller.
The optical illusion with the moon that I've heard most is that it appears larger when it rises and sets. My understanding is that it has to do with its apparent proximity to ground objects. The actual angle subtended by the moon stays about the same - it's 1/4 of the width of your forefinger held at arm's length (0.5 degree, finger takes up about 2 degrees). Same with the sun - same apparent size.
I love this one.I have not done it yet. But I want to make a gauge with two pointers about half a metre long.Looking through a peep hole, (reminds me of Vegas..), you could adjust the pointers to show the exact size of the moon, and compare it with later when overhead.There's gotta be a difference.
Wild eh? Look at pictures of the total solar eclipse - it's right there. We're the only planet in the solar system whose moon JUST BARELY covers the disk of the sun during eclipse showing the corona or outer atmosphere of the sun. Just wild stuff.
Yeah, the Sun's 400 times the diameter of the moon and 400 times further away so when viewed from the side, the rule of similar triangles, has that phenomenon covered.However..Anybody who tells me that the moon does not look bigger on some nights just as it crests the horizon looking like a spherical, yellow, internally illuminated, hot air balloon, compared to the white golf ball overhead later on, will need to bring something more to the table than..."Sorry mate you're wrong 'cos I bloody well said so..."The big problem I have is that, everybody who tells me I'm wrong is more educated and probably more intelligent than I am...That's gunna put a spanner in my works, I can just feel it.
Anybody who tells me that the moon does not look bigger on some nights just as it crests the horizon looking like a spherical, yellow, internally illuminated, hot air balloon, compared to the white golf ball overhead later on, will need to bring something more to the table than...
It absolutely DOES LOOK bigger to your eye. But if you measure the angle that it actually subtends in the sky (as you proposed) you'll see that it is NOT bigger. There's no way for it to ACTUALLY be bigger. What did it do, move 40,000 miles closer to the earth between 9 PM and midnight?You've seen optical illusions before; if not, just google "optical illusion images" and you'll see ones that you won't believe; lines that you SWEAR could not be parallel until you lay a ruler on them, boxes where you'd bet your life that box "A" is WAY bigger than box "B" until you actually measure them ... The moon near the horizon versus the moon overhead is exactly the same phenomenon ....Lannis
Yeah all fair comments.I've never suggested that it IS bigger, but if you are adamant that the angle subtented is the same at moonrise and overhead, then I simply must stand educated.I never ever would have said so though...