The Amazing Mystery of the Moon

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[video=youtube;WANNqr-vcx0]

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Measurements don't tell the whole story. Maybe we are measuring the wrong thing.

 

If esldude says he sees the moon getting smaller, we can only conclude that it is getting smaller, at least for him.

 

How he intends to double blind test the visual perception of the size of the moon at different positioning is what I would like to know...

 

R

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Yes it is. From wikipedia:

 

A central question pertaining to the Moon illusion, therefore, is whether the horizon moon appears larger because its perceived angular size seems greater, or because its perceived physical size seems greater, or some combination of both. There is currently no firm consensus on this point. Most recent research on the Moon illusion has been conducted by psychologists specializing in human perception. After reviewing the many different explanations in their 2002 book The Mystery of the Moon Illusion, Ross and Plug conclude "No single theory has emerged victorious".[7] The same conclusion is reached in the 1989 book, The Moon Illusion edited by Hershenson, which offers about 24 chapters written by different illusion researchers.

 

There are many variations on the illusion theory. None actually fully fit the observed facts and truly explain. Some contradict each other. No one knows.

 

Now it is my opinion the insistence the size of the moon changing is an illusion is very wrong headed. Until people open their minds to other hypothesis which don't require it being illusion there will be no satisfactory explanation. Do these people really believe billions of people are deluding themselves when they see the size of the moon change? With this many observations all agreeing to dismiss them is a serious mistake.

 

Photographers often add people or some known object/being when framing landscapes to add scale.

 

I think that the same mechanism is at work here: when the moon is higher up, it's size appears smaller for lack of visual (scale) references.

 

R

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This is another example of the obsession with the idea that the moon is not really changing size. When one can very simply see the size changes.

 

Ok, I'll try your double-blind then...

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Seriously now, are you going to believe what you see or what you don't see when it comes to visual phenomena?

 

Visual phenomena is best perceived sighted. That would seem to be an obvious thing to the point of being a tautology.

 

Alternatively one can always try this "very special" technique:

 

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I think this calls for a triple-blind test:

 

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Yes, it looks like the horizon is changing size too...

 

R

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Now you are being patronizing and spreading false information. That is not true.

 

It is true the phases progress in opposite directions.

Does the moon look the same all round the world?

 

The world is not round.

 

Besides, everyone knows that the Sun and the Moon rise from the Earth, then follow their path across the heavens only to return at the end of their journey...

 

R