Garie Beach

On Friday night we were driving from Richmond to Virginia Beach and up ahead we saw the moon and it was so big

that it looked like it was sitting on the road. While I was hurrying to find my camera and get a lens on it it went from being massive to normal all within about 1 mile. It was a beautiful orange. What happened!!

Public Comments

1. The large size was a trick of the mind. Our mind percieves objects in the sky near the horizon to be further away than objects in the sky above us. Since the moon appears the same size (more or less) on the horizon, our brain makes us think it is much bigger, as it would have to be for it to appear the same size while being (what our brain thinks is) further away. If you took a picture of it, it would have been the same size it always is.
2. The moon always looks that way when it is close to the horizon. Both it and the sun appear redder due to the greater refraction of blue light in the atmosphere, (Rayleigh scattering). The longer wavelengths of light to penetrate through better. Believe it or not, the moon is almost exactly the same angular diameter when it is low as when it is high in the sky. We just tend to see things larger when they are low in the sky.
3. This is one of my favorite optical illusions. Both previous answers are correct...but try this experiment. Next time the moon is rising or setting close to the horizen,hold your thumb out at arms length and compare the moon's size to your thumb-nail. Now measure it again when it is high overhead in the sky. You'll see that although it looks huge close to the horizen, it is actually the same size when compared to your thumbnail held out at arms length no matter where it is in the sky.
4. And here's the best explanation so far for the illusion: http://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/
5. just read the other answers! if and when you think they aren't helpful Google it!
6. its moving away every day, it will never be as big as it was today to our mind lets see, a foot a year, 5,000 yrs ago when the greeks saw it, thats a mile closer, image that view