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Author Topic: Moon Illusion  (Read 4160 times)

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Offline Ladislaus

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Moon Illusion
« on: March 03, 2018, 07:58:11 PM »
So, on the way home, the moon was relatively low on the horizon and it looked huge ... probably 4 - 5 times its normal size.

This has been referred to as the "Moon Illusion".

Science evidently can't explain it and have chalked it up as being a psychological phenomenon.

I call bull on that.  There's no way this is psychological.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion

So what do flat earth proponents say about this?  IMO is the moon is a relatively constant distance from the earth, there's no way it could ever look that big in the sky.  Atmospheric refraction does not suffice as an explanation.  Plus you could clearly see the moon's topography ... which is ridiculous if it's actually almost 250,000 miles away.

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Offline Ladislaus

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Re: Moon Illusion
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2018, 08:08:47 PM »
This remains "unexplained" by science ... but they start with the premise that the moon isn't actually closer to the observer.

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/blogs/why-nobody-can-explain-the-moon-illusion
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Offline Centroamerica

Re: Moon Illusion
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2018, 09:50:33 PM »

I was on the way home from first Saturday Mass with my nephew and we saw exactly what you describe, to the tee. I would say that there could be some reflective work at hand since the color orangish and returned to beije once it returned to its normal size, but Im no expert.
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Offline Marlelar

Re: Moon Illusion
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2018, 10:13:16 PM »
Quote from: Ladislaus on March 03, 2018, 07:58:11 PM
Atmospheric refraction does not suffice as an explanation.
Why not?
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Offline noOneImportant

Re: Moon Illusion
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2018, 11:15:39 PM »
Probably because atmospheric refraction is typically a very small effect. 

Ladislaus, I think what is meant by psychological phenomenon is more optical illusion than anything. There are plenty of examples out there of optical illusions that can make things appear to be different sizes when they aren't (one example here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebbinghaus_illusion).

Simple experiment you can do to check this for yourself (I pulled this off some random website): "To see for yourself, take a sheet of paper and roll it up into a narrow tube. Point it at the rising Moon and adjust the tube's size until it's a little larger than the Moon's diameter. Tape the tube so its size stays the same and look at the Moon again a few hours later when it's higher in the sky. You'll see it fills the same space."

Note: I haven't tried this, but it seems to make sense. Let me know what you see if you get a chance to.
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