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A beautiful, big full moon was visible over Christchurch, New Zealand tonight, and I was just talking about this with the kids. It fascinates me that scientists

• adolph 4y ago
  Key word is "appears." Brain function is another frontier of knowledge just like all those encountered in a space program. The Ponzo illusion is one possible explanation of the Moon illusion, with objects appearing "far away" (because they are "on" the horizon) appearing bigger than objects "overhead". However, some have argued that explaining one perception ("appears far away") in terms of another ("appears bigger") is problematic scientifically, and that there are probably complex internal processes behind these illusions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzo_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzo_illusion
• tejtm 4y ago
  if you are still young and flexible enough .... compare the apparent size of the full moon near the horizon when standing normally and then upside down, by looking between your legs, or standing on your head. It is how proved to myself my eyes can not be trusted really
• mihaic 4y ago
  Maybe objects at low angles are perceived with another computational unit, since they are part of the scenary and we need to extrapolate, and the sky is a big whatever. But really maybe there's no simple explanation other than "that's how the brain works", and we assume there has to be one.
• Gatsky 4y ago
  Just came to say I saw the same full moon of startling clarity in Christchurch.
• doctoboggan 4y ago
  I am also in Christchurch and was wishing my iPhone was able to capture the moon in any amount of detail tonight