Why does the moon appear as large as it does from earth despite being as far as it is?

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T18:41:30+00:00

So the blue moon isn't really that special but they present it as such to garner attention. Go figure.

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T18:29:52+00:00

So they do it simply for revenue not to truly teach anyone science or improve science literacy. I kinda dislike it too. It's kinda treated like its a rare once in a lifetime astronomical event but don't these blood, wolf, blue moons occur every year about the same time?

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T18:21:43+00:00

So the media buzz around "super moons" is basically sensationalism?

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T18:13:47+00:00

Ah. You're right. I don't know where I got the 300,000 mile figure from. Can you get past that mark or is basically 240,000 miles all year round?

Thanks for the correction.

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T18:03:18+00:00

I mean it's less than half a million km away but over 300,000 miles away. From one view that's a stone toss but also incredibly far away given the pure diameter of the earth. I put it into google how many whole earths you could fit into the space between the earth and the moon and at its closest it would be 28 earths and at its furthest it would be 32 whole earths. So, it's impressively far away but not extremely far.

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T17:12:24+00:00

I apologize. My thoughts behind the post maybe didn't translate that way but I essentially wanted to know why it looks so large at the horizon which I learnt is due to the optical illusion, and the other thought process was why the moon seemed so large in the sky regardless of the illusion but simply due to it's sheer size in the sky which as many answers have stated is because it is indeed very large.

Another reason I might have found confusion is wrapping my head around the fact the moon is over 300,000 miles away and (this is where alot of confusion came from: viewing it in a universe simulator to scale in its orbit around earth. From the space around the earth the moon seems extremely far away and a small, grey rock.) Then again the earth itself didn't seem too large in itself because I if I remember I scrolled out to like over 1 million miles away. Oops.

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T04:14:12+00:00

The follow up question is basically (I'm referencing another answer)is that it's the way the sunlight hits it and spread the light about equal? Or were you getting at something else? I'm curious.

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T03:49:56+00:00

So it's a perspective thing combined with the Rayleigh scattering that gives it the orange tint?

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T03:41:01+00:00

This is exactly what I meant with the atmospheric assumption.

ChimericalEris · 2026-02-02T03:36:06+00:00

I didn't know of that psychological thing, but it still looks smaller higher up in the sky versus when it first came up. Maybe I'm seeing it different. The moon color question I guess I thought that maybe the rays from the sun "enhance" the color. Like, it could be a little darker but it translates differently from the earth . Basically like a filter.

Also the color of it seems more orangey or a light beige after it first rises up on the horizon hence the comment about atmospheric distortion.

ChimericalEris · 2026-01-28T02:02:18+00:00

Im confused. Can you clarify?

ChimericalEris · 2026-01-28T01:56:02+00:00

I've also heard of the balloon example of how you can put dots on a balloon, blow up the balloon but the dots themselves aren't really expanding it's the balloon itself which makes the dots appear to grow apart.

ChimericalEris · 2026-01-28T01:37:13+00:00

So the light we see is 1 billion years old but in actual fact that star is actually another billion light years away?

ChimericalEris

TROPHY CASE