Anderson Joshua@anderson_joshua

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The Moon illusion explained

Catch a full Moon sitting low over the treeline and it can look almost unreal, like something painted rather than something actually up there. Here's the twist though: nothing about it has actually swelled. Down near the horizon, our brains tend to read it as bigger than the version hanging high overhead, and that trick has a name, the Moon illusion. The colour is a whole separate story. Light from the Moon takes a longer path through Earth's atmosphere when it's low, so the shorter blue wavelengths get scattered away and the warmer tones are what survive to reach you. Stack those two things and you get a sight that's hard to look away from. Then it keeps climbing, and somewhere along the way it seems to shrink back down and settle into that familiar pale-white glow. The size never budged. What shifted was how we see it and what the light does on the way in. Ever caught a Moonrise so good you just stopped everything to watch? Artistic visualization.

2h

Anderson Joshua@anderson_joshua

Follow

The Moon illusion explained

Catch a full Moon sitting low over the treeline and it can look almost unreal, like something painted rather than something actually up there. Here's the twist though: nothing about it has actually swelled. Down near the horizon, our brains tend to read it as bigger than the version hanging high overhead, and that trick has a name, the Moon illusion. The colour is a whole separate story. Light from the Moon takes a longer path through Earth's atmosphere when it's low, so the shorter blue wavelengths get scattered away and the warmer tones are what survive to reach you. Stack those two things and you get a sight that's hard to look away from. Then it keeps climbing, and somewhere along the way it seems to shrink back down and settle into that familiar pale-white glow. The size never budged. What shifted was how we see it and what the light does on the way in. Ever caught a Moonrise so good you just stopped everything to watch? Artistic visualization.

2h