Moon questions--size and color?

Question

As the sun set and the moon rose on the horizon last night (driving in southern Virginia), the moon looked ridiculously large. I'm not talking beach ball large; I'm talking about a medicine ball for King Kong and Godzilla to play catch with.

First Question--Why?

Also, it was as orange as I've seen it.

Second question--Why?

I obviously am not too into astronomy usually, but the freakishly large look and the cool color got me interested.

Thanks for any help from the more enlightened.

This was Sunday night (the night after the eclipse).

Stefan--I think you may be right. But you'd better watch your back now. A lot of people don't want the truth to get out.

Answer 1

The large size is an optical illusion due to the fact that when it is closer to the horizon, your eye has other familiar objects to use as size references. The orange color is due to some of the light at the blue end of the spectrum being filtered out by particulates in the atmosphere- while it's low in the sky, the light must pass through more air then when it's higher in the sky because it enters the atmosphere at a lower angle.

Answer 2

Was this Saturday night, rather than "last night" as in Sunday night? There was a lunar eclipse Saturday night, and the coverage was such that the Moon rose in North America while the eclipse was already underway. This was responsible for the orange color. Even though the Earth sits between the Moon and Sun during an eclipse, some of the Sun's light is refracted through the Earth's atmosphere and still reaches the Moon to illuminate it. The light is scattered in the same way as the Sun's light at sunset, causing the orange color. During a lunar eclipse, the Moon can appear orange, red, or brown, depending on other factors. If it was really Sunday night, the coloration may have been due to a local atmospheric condition, such as pollution or a sharp change in air temperature (causing an unusual reflection).

The apparent largeness of the Moon at moonrise is an optical illusion. When the Moon is near the horizon, it is close to other objects that you can see, such as trees and buildings, and it can look quite large compared to them. When it has risen higher, it sits alone in the sky and you don't compare it to anything, so it does not seem quite as large. In actuality, the Moon's width in arc is very slightly larger (only 1.5%), not smaller, when it is directly overhead because the Moon is slightly closer to the point of observation at that time.

Answer 3

This is a psychological effect --- when the Moon is high on the sky, there is nothing to compare the size with except for the whole sky, and it seems small. When it is near the horizon, your mind compares it with the detailed features on the horizon, and the Moon appears to be bigger.

The color is most likely due to reflection of some wavelengths of inbound light from the moon as it passes through more atmosphere (air, dust, water, etc.) at the horizon to get to your eye.

Answer 4

I think it's all fishy. Keep askin questions about that moon. Like we just theorize over why we always see the same side of it and it seems to be on a rod that runs from the Sun, through the Earth, into the moon. And why's it always on the dark side of our planet? I say always on the dark side because I see it every night, all night.. except the few days that it is a "new moon". How do people in most regions of Earth see the moon 75%+ of the time? Is it all coincidence created of chaos? I like to wonder about it, even if "people" want to look at me like I'm absolutely insane. And yes, I've read plenty of scientific explanations. To me, it'd be them who are the nuts for believing anything unquestionningly. And believe it or not, after having said that, I do believe it's just a big rock and not an alien mothership or a cardboard cut-out.

Answer 5

It isn't any larger, it is a well known optical illusion. The mood just appears to be larger because of the color, but it is actually the same exact size. If you measure it with a protractor, you will find this to be true. The color just makes it look more spread out.