Why does the moon appear larger sometimes?
98413
the moon generally appears larger when it is near the horizon. It works by the fact that you have something to compare it too. The same moon that night way up high in the sky obviously would look smaller as there is nothing to compare it too.\n\nThere is one fool proof way to prove this. When the moon is near the horizon stick out your arm and cover the moon with the tip of your pinkie. Do it again when the moon is overhead, you'll soon see it is the same size.
113023
It is just an optical illusion. Your brain apparently compares the moon (and the sun) with familiar objects around it and that makes it appear larger. If you took pictures and measured, you would see that there is no difference (we had to do this in school in grade 8, and there definitely is no size difference). \n\nThere are refraction effects when the moon and the sun is low in the horizon that distort their shape so they do not look spherical, or are no longer simply connected, or exhibit green flashes etc. But the size does not vary appreciably if they are high enough in the sky to be seen as circular disks.
448771
I think it would because while the sun and the moon both shine, the moon is not boastful and sometimes hides away only showing it's light some of the time and, even then, only softly. Doesn't that seem beautiful to you?
1141345
This effect is called the moon illusion and has been debated for years. Although the moon appears larger near the horizon, it really isn't. You can measure the size of the moon by holding a hole-punched index card at arm's length. The moon is about the same size as the hole both on the horizon and high in the sky. \n\nSome people believe the moon appears larger on the horizon because you have reference points like trees and buildings. Not true. The moon illusion is caused by how we perceive the sky. It is too complicated for me to explain, but these Web sites below will make everything crystal clear:
786050
This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth. \n\nThe reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That's why you only see yellow, orange, or red.\n\nThe moon can have an orange color at any time of the year. Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it's directly overhead. This occurs when there's a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see.\n\nHope that helps! ^^
424768
It looks like that because of the refraction of light through moisture in the atmosphere. What you are seeing is really just water in our atmosphere difusing the sunlight reflected by the moon.
830517
The moon goes around the earth faster than we go around the sun...
519531
cause it is the moon in front of him
529765
I can't give any explanation to your question, but I've had a similar experience some 9 yrs before. I was studying for my college exams that time and I came out to the terrace to relax. It was about 4am and the moon was going down. Suddenly it started to decrease in size just like during an eclipse - but only much faster and finally vanished.\nI asked about it to my Professor who said it couldnot've happened.\nNow, atleast I know somebody who have had a similar experience.
591541
While refraction by the atmosphere is too small to affect the apparent diameter of the moon except perhaps when it is within one diameter of the horizon (and in this case, the moon will appear stretched a bit in the direction perpindicular to the horizon) it does appear larger to our brains when on the horizon because we see it in reference to distant large objects.  Gives the impression of it looking bigger, however if you could look straight up at the moon, and see a bunch of trees a mile up in sky between you and the moon it would look just as large as when it is near the horizon.  (If you ever do see this by the way, seek shelter or psychiatric treatment immediately!)\n\nThe moons orbit IS elliptical, however, and at times will be closer to the earth than others.  This phenomenon is called "lunation" and there is a great still and a gif animation of this at the Astronomy Picture of the Day.\n\nhttp://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041021.html\nhttp://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991108.html\n\nThe moon's surface brightness (brightness per area) also varies with phase. Because larger particles tend to reflect a bit more light directly back at the light source than in other directions (look up "Mie" scattering) a given bit of the moon will appear brighter when the earth is in the direction of the sun as seen from the moon. (All three are in a line with the Earth more or less between). This occurs when the moon is full or near full. This brightening might make the moon look larger.
604451
The full moon is visible as full anywhere\non earth where it is above the horizon...\nobviously if it is far in the southern\nhemisphere and you are far north, like\nin northern Finland, you may not see the\nfull moon at all... (but if you could it\nwould still appear full)
388414
refraction from the atmosphere magnifies.  When the moon, or sun, is low on the horizon, you're looking through more of the atmosphere to see it.
1138031
Earth shine is the correct answer. When the Moon is crescent as seen from Earth, the Earth is nearly full as seen from the Moon. And Earth is bigger and has much higher reflectivity than the Moon, so a nearly full Earth gives much more light than a nearly full Moon does.
700137
When you looked at the moon with your eye, the moon was out of focus, so it looked big relative to the landscape (which your eye was focused on).  Besides, when the moon is low on the horizon, the light has to pass through extra air, so the light from the moon is scattered more (placed out of focus).\n\nThe camera brought the moon into focus, so it looked smaller.  Next time, try using "portrait mode"(focuses the foreground image only) and see what happens.
1087183
The moon has a side that always faces us! That's not always filled with light though. That's why we have phases of the moon.
166469
7.349 x 10 ^22 kg - every night! (source: NASA) :)\n\nThe apparent size of the moon varies.  Check this link for an explanation:\n\nhttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/bigmoon_000105.html
438648
The Moon has a surface area of 152 million square kilometers.\nThe Earth is 13.5 times larger.