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Why does the moon look bigger when it is rising in the east?

When we look the moon rising on the horizon, isn't it optically larger than when it is high in the sky? why?

  • Answer:

    It is just an optical illusion. Your brain apparently compares the moon (and the sun) with familiar objects around it and that makes it appear larger. If you took pictures and measured, you would see that there is no difference (we had to do this in school in grade 8, and there definitely is no size difference). There are refraction effects when the moon and the sun is low in the horizon that distort their shape so they do not look spherical, or are no longer simply connected, or exhibit green flashes etc. But the size does not vary appreciably if they are high enough in the sky to be seen as circular disks.

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It is an optical illusion. The moon appears larger when near the horizon because you are visually comparing its size to known objects on the ground. When it is high in the sky, you only see it as small compared to the vast open sky. If you photograph the moon on the horizon and the moon high in the sky with the same zoom setting and compare the pictures, you will find that they are the same size.

Hick_Ninja

I think it is because the lower the moon is, the more atmosphere we are looking through. This has a magnifying effect.

Mr. Bodhisattva

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