Full Moon - Unusually Big & Bright - May 5

[Orphia Nay]

Beautiful photos, GeeMack.

Here's what our own Bad Astronomer has to say about it.

Verdict: It's not unusual. And not overly noticeable. Watch the moon even when it's not at the perigee!

Personally, I'e always liked half or three-quarter moons better for observation. Nice shadows. Better looking surface features.

Heh. Yes, I went out to look at it last night (before reading that or this thread) and thought, hmm, it looks very pretty and rather bright, but no bigger than usual as far as I can tell.

As Phil says, it's still nice if people get to see our lovely moon because of reports that make them expect it to be enormous.

 

[Tricky]

Houston is pretty hazy. Best I could do.

 

[Notrump]

Houston is pretty hazy. Best I could do.

Nice shot, Tricky. Hazy is often better for a Full Moon. Beginning about 23:30 CDT here near Chicago the perfectly circular Moon good be discerned through thinning clouds. Now it's a little after midnight and the moon looks magnificent through what is still a bit of haze. For those of us who are regular Moon watchers, it is quite obviously wider than usual. We did not expect it to appear enormous. Glad we both got to see the show.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

This was at 21:15 taken near Peoria, Illinois. The Moon was 12° above the horizon, and it's still a little more than an hour from being 100% full...

[qimg]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TeVk7d33Z0E/T6XnfqqPj7I/AAAAAAAAAQU/86vSDt3OStg/s1600/Moon2012-05-05.jpg[/qimg]​

Not much to look at with the Sun directly overhead, so to speak, because there's no angle of light to enhance the surface features. But measuring the image in the software it's just about as perfectly round as it ever gets.

Love it. Look at how far you can see the ejecta rays that go out from the Tycho Crater.

 

[ThunderChunky]

Very nice pics! The moon was very big last night.

 

[Rolfe]

It was lovely here last night too. Bright and clear. Unfortunately I only looked at it through a window and didn't go out and photograph it.

Maybe I should have, to prove to you all it isn't always cloudy here....

Rolfe.

 

[Ian]

There will also be a solar eclipse:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012...-20-how-to-see-sun-ring-fire/?intcmp=features

 

[Orphia Nay]

It's supposed to be a "Supermoon" tonight, as well.

Don't get Neil deGrasse Tyson started on the Supermoon:

http://youtu.be/u5-i-I2DUa0



"If you have a 16-inch pizza, would you call that a Super Pizza compared with a 15-inch pizza?"

But I look forward to all the new photos of it all the same.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Good night to test the horizon illusion.

When the Moon is on the horizon, cover one eye, uncover it, cover it, notice the Moon instantly changes size.

Your brain, despite being aware consciously of the horizon illusion, cannot shut the illusion off. But if you block the 3D image from your retina, it can. In 2D, the Moon looks its natural size. In 3D your brain adjusts the size you perceive (for all intents and purposes the size you are sure you see) in relation to if it were an object on Earth on the horizon.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Good night to test the horizon illusion.

When the Moon is on the horizon, cover one eye, uncover it, cover it, notice the Moon instantly changes size.

Your brain, despite being aware consciously of the horizon illusion, cannot shut the illusion off. But if you block the 3D image from your retina, it can. In 2D, the Moon looks its natural size. In 3D your brain adjusts the size you perceive (for all intents and purposes the size you are sure you see) in relation to if it were an object on Earth on the horizon.

What is this "horizon" you speak of? I've wanted to test this, 'cuz I believe it will work and I like cool stuff, especially to show Marcello but like most people, I'm not on the Great Plains and the damned moon won't cooperate and rise or set over the Gulf of Siam.

 

[ehcks]

Good night to test the horizon illusion.

When the Moon is on the horizon, cover one eye, uncover it, cover it, notice the Moon instantly changes size.

Your brain, despite being aware consciously of the horizon illusion, cannot shut the illusion off. But if you block the 3D image from your retina, it can. In 2D, the Moon looks its natural size. In 3D your brain adjusts the size you perceive (for all intents and purposes the size you are sure you see) in relation to if it were an object on Earth on the horizon.

Supposedly you can also block it by looking at it upside down.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

What is this "horizon" you speak of? I've wanted to test this, 'cuz I believe it will work and I like cool stuff, especially to show Marcello but like most people, I'm not on the Great Plains and the damned moon won't cooperate and rise or set over the Gulf of Siam.

What do you mean, what is the horizon?

If you see the Moon rising, and you can see the horizon, be it trees or buildings or hills or mountains, it works.

It's not a function of distance, or even of the angle of the Moon compared to you. It's a function of your brain saying, I see a big glowing globe and I see other things, ergo I will send the brain a report. Or I see a big glowing globe by itself overhead and the brain sends a different report to your consciousness center. The first report is based on two eyes sending slightly different images to the independently thinking brain. If that brain only sees one image from one eye, it sends a different data set to the consciousness center.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Here's the best I could manage with my camera tonight:

 

[Foolmewunz]

What do you mean, what is the horizon?

If you see the Moon rising, and you can see the horizon, be it trees or buildings or hills or mountains, it works.

It's not a function of distance, or even of the angle of the Moon compared to you. It's a function of your brain saying, I see a big glowing globe and I see other things, ergo I will send the brain a report. Or I see a big glowing globe by itself overhead and the brain sends a different report to your consciousness center. The first report is based on two eyes sending slightly different images to the independently thinking brain. If that brain only sees one image from one eye, it sends a different data set to the consciousness center.

Okay, I'll check it out tomorrow. By horizon, I meant that point in the distance (generally speaking) where the sky seems to meet the earth. Maybe I'm old school but that's what it always sounds like to me. The moon tends to rise about fifty meters away from where I'm sitting right now - over some trees across the street, but I don't get sight of it until it's at roughy 11:00 in the sky, assuming ground level to be 9:00

 

[Orphia Nay]

FMW, the full moon is tonight, not tomorrow.

I tried covering one eye when it was on the horizon, but I'm not sure I noticed a difference. Perhaps because I was aware of an illusion, if that makes sense.

 

[Foolmewunz]

FMW, the full moon is tonight, not tomorrow.

I tried covering one eye when it was on the horizon, but I'm not sure I noticed a difference. Perhaps because I was aware of an illusion, if that makes sense.

Well, thanks for that, I was remembering a headline from a week ago about an unusually bright moon on the 24th. Or....

Well, it doesn't matter then. We're in a blanket of cloud cover with intermittent rain all day and there's not a break in sight. It's nearly nightfall here - another hour - and I doubt we'll see moon or stars.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

FMW, the full moon is tonight, not tomorrow.

I tried covering one eye when it was on the horizon, but I'm not sure I noticed a difference. Perhaps because I was aware of an illusion, if that makes sense.

It's not a huge difference. I've done it many times to be sure it worked before telling other people about it and I know about the illusion. Perhaps you are expecting a larger difference?

 

[Foolmewunz]

Well, thanks for that, I was remembering a headline from a week ago about an unusually bright moon on the 24th. Or....

Well, it doesn't matter then. We're in a blanket of cloud cover with intermittent rain all day and there's not a break in sight. It's nearly nightfall here - another hour - and I doubt we'll see moon or stars.

Just confirming the above. Light drizzle all night, very low ceiling, no celestial bodies visible.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I know people know this for the most part but I thought I'd post the link anyway.

Why does the Moon look so huge on the horizon?

The illusion works because our brains are a bit wonky. The slanted lines make us think that anything near the top is farther away; the lines force our brain to think those lines are parallel but receding in the distance (like railroad tracks). The two horizontal lines are physically the same length, but our brain thinks the upper one is farther away. If it’s farther away, then duh, our brain says to itself, it must be bigger than the lower one. So we perceive it that way.

Look at the hallway example in the article.
When you see the narrowing black lines in the 2D image that give us the perception of depth, covering one eye doesn't change how we perceive the red lines because the brain is using the lines, and not our stereoscopic vision to determine distance. On the horizon, it's your eye parallax that perceives the distance. Take that away, and unless you have narrowing lines, like say a straight highway that goes to the horizon, and you see the effect.

Writing this out made me think, were you looking at a very distant horizon? Maybe that makes a difference. If so, try it with a nearby horizon like buildings or trees. I'm going to have to try this and see if it differs.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I found this citation:

About the Moon illusion

Although many people assume that the phenomenon has something to do with the Earth’s atmosphere, in reality the refraction of light by the atmosphere acts to make the Moon appear slightly smaller and flatter near the horizon—not larger. Various activities provide evidence that the illusion has to do with the way in which our brain processes visual information. For example, if you bend over and look between your legs at the Moon — or if you lie on your side, or if you close one eye — you can reduce or eliminate the illusion.

It mentions the upside down trick that ehcks noted as well. I find that particular quirk about perception fascinating.