saw a program about the moon landings, the earh looked about the same size as the moon does from here, given that one is a lot bigger than the other how can this be.
2007-12-15 03:18:32 · 12 answers · asked by hamyam69 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The Earth appears four times bigger from the Moon, than the Moon does from the Earth. That's because the distance between them is the same, no matter which direction you're looking in, and the Earth is four times larger in diameter than the Moon.
Both the Earth and the Moon tend to look smaller in pictures than they do to our eyes because of an effect called The Moon Illusion, where objects closer to the horizon appear bigger than objects overhead. Also, you probably have no idea what the focal length was of the lenses used for the pictures. If I recall correctly, the Hasselblads used by the Apollo astronauts were fitted with 50mm wide angle lenses, which would make everything look smaller.
2007-12-15 03:30:54 · answer #1 · answered by GeoffG 7 · 8⤊ 0⤋
It's a hard one to prove without being able to stand on the moon and see for yourself, but the laws of physics say that the earth will look slightly bigger from the moon. Chances are any discrepancies you saw were the result of different camera angles or something like that.
2007-12-15 03:23:29 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
It's really hard to judge apparent size of anything in a photo. Since the earth is about 8000 miles wide and the moon only a quarter of that, the earth would have to appear about 2 degrees of arc wide in the sky from the moon, because the moon looks half a degree wide in our sky.
I bet that looked really great to the astronauts. Have any of them commented on this? I'd like to find out what they said about it.
2007-12-15 03:33:17 · answer #3 · answered by Steve H 5 · 5⤊ 0⤋
You're putting too much reliance on photographs, when you don't know the size of the lens and other conditions.
In fact, if you measure it properly, the earth from the moon looks much bigger than the moon from the earth - because as you say, the earth is much the bigger of the two.
2007-12-15 04:37:43 · answer #4 · answered by James P 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Watch the show again. This time with your eyes open. The earth looks much bigger than does the moon.
2007-12-15 12:30:13 · answer #5 · answered by butterscotch 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2016-11-03 08:48:00 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't look the same size; it looks about 3 times bigger. But that is still pretty small, especially in photographs.
2007-12-15 04:21:13 · answer #7 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, the earth looks about 4 times larger, since it is!
2007-12-15 04:22:33 · answer #8 · answered by Midnight-Expressman 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's just the way it looked on the photo - it probably bears no relation to how it looks for real.
2007-12-15 03:22:44 · answer #9 · answered by Felidae 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋
its a david blane trick. not really. on the moon your less greedy so your eyes ain't as big, so the earth looks smaller.
2007-12-15 03:21:37 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋