The Conversation contributed the article to Space.com's expert voices.
The Professor of Astronomy is Silas Laycock.
Why does the moon look different on different nights.
The moon is larger than usual at certain times of the night.
When I was a child, I remember seeing a huge round shape behind my friend Nancy's house, which was on a hill on the other side of our village.
When I realized it was the moon, I ran through the garden screaming to my dad to come and see it. It was larger than a house and deep orange in color. My dad went back to playing the piano after talking about perspective.
I continued to watch the moon. After the moon rose higher in the sky, it was1-65561-65561-6556.
The moon illusion is what I call it.
It's hard to believe that it's just an illusion when the moon is large. It is possible to test the illusion yourself and even take a picture of it.
Astronomers have been talking about the moon illusion for hundreds of years.
When the moon is full and close to the horizon, people notice it more. If you compare the moon to other familiar things, you'll get a better idea of how big or small it is.
You are standing by your house. The moon will look normal if the house is large. The house is small if you look at it from a long way away.
The illusion is caused by the fact that the moon is so far away that it doesn't matter where you are. Depending on how far away you are from a house, a mountain or anything else, the moon looks larger or smaller. The moon looks huge when it rises next to a mountain.
This trick is used by photographers to take pictures of distant objects. The moon illusion can be experienced on vacations. Big moons may be the reason for happy times.
The moon illusion can be explained in several different ways. They persist because they are grounded in reality.
The idea that the atmosphere magnifies the moon is the first one. When the moon is close to the horizon, the light has to travel through more of the Earth's atmosphere. All that air distorts the color and shape of the moon by bending the rays of light. It isn't a magnifying glass.
Some nights the moon is closer than others. The moon gets closer and closer to the earth over the course of a month because it's not a perfect circle.
A super moon is a full moon that occurs when the close part of the moon's elliptical path coincides with a full moon. The moon illusion is caused by the fact that it is only 12% to 15% closer to Earth when it is furthest away. It's hard to see a difference in size when you only look at the moon.
You can do it yourself if you want to. Hold out your hand and look at the moon in a different way. For me, the pinkie finger is just barely covering the moon. Try the experiment again when the moon is higher in the sky. The moon may look small, but your finger will cover it.
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