Astronomy Question

[thejazz97]

Okay, so I saw something last night that I'm wondering about.

I was on my way to work last night, and the moon was orange and huge as ever. It went behind a cloud, and I thought nothing of it. Until my break, that is. I came out of Superstore a couple hours later with a couple friends to go to 7-11, and it was small and white. For comparison, it was like the size of a toonie compared with a one cent euro.

I have to ask, how does this happen? Is there some physics to it or am I just seeing things?

[Zfetch]

I was on my way to work last night, and the moon was orange and huge as ever.

I came out of Superstore a couple hours later with a couple friends to go to 7-11, and it was small and white.

I'm pretty sure you saw the Sun.

[PlayStation]

The stars are aligning for you it seems. I see you meeting somebody special resl soon.

That'll be $20.

[Aladeen]

Hey man I will actually give you a serious answer because I know what you saw. It is something called "Moon Illusion" This is that when the Moon is near the Horizon it appears larger than it does higher up in the sky.

Some believe this has to do with the atmosphere at that angle acting as sort of a magnifying glass.

Hope that helps ya thejizz97

[Aladeen]

Also I should add at that angle, just like when the sun is setting more light bounces off the atmosphere so it makes the colour of the moon change to an orange or reddish hue (the higher frequency colours tend to not make it through to your eye - Blues, violets etc). When the moon is higher in the sky less light is bounced off the atmosphere (i.e. more of the spectrum makes it to your eye) and thus it becomes more white.

[Ghostsof1915]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion

[Argon]

Slightly different topic, but Astronomy by BOC is an amazing classic rock song. Check er out when you've finished having your question answered

[Chalky]

[Miltt]

I think it's more an astrology question than anything else.

I hope this answers your question.

[SamJamIam]

Okay, so I saw something last night that I'm wondering about.

I was on my way to work last night, and the moon was orange and huge as ever. It went behind a cloud, and I thought nothing of it. Until my break, that is. I came out of Superstore a couple hours later with a couple friends to go to 7-11, and it was small and white. For comparison, it was like the size of a toonie compared with a one cent euro.

I have to ask, how does this happen? Is there some physics to it or am I just seeing things?

This happens when the moon is low in the sky, especially soon after the sun has set. It's a result of an aspect of the light that causes sunsets to appear red, combined with a lensing effect in the atmosphere (also present during sunsets and sunrises).

There are two types of scattering that cause the colours of sunsets as sunlights hits atmospheric particles, one which gives the dramatic range of colours and a more subtle orange-red glow resulting from Mie Scattering. This Mie Scattering becomes more dramatic as the sun gets lower but that red-orange effect is still present long after the sun is set, it's just not visible against the dark night sky. If the moon is low enough after sunset, it will show up as orange or red as a result of that scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere.

The size is due to the extreme angle the moonlight travels through the atmosphere which acts as a lens. In fact, every sunset is an optical illusion because what we see is light which can curved around the Earth as it travels to us. So when you see the sun just begin to touch the horizon, that's when the sun has physically passed the horizon. Similarly the sun, or moon get larger from the lensing.

Combine both effects and you get a harvest moon. And that wikipedia article is $&!# because this is not at all debated.

[Baer.]

I'll show u a full moon

[LuckyLuciano]

I'll show u a full moon

I'd be careful if I were you..