Why does the Moon appear much bigger when just above the Horizon ?
957189
This is an optical illusion - It has to do with how the brain interpretes things that are in front of you compared to above you. Try this for yourself: Take a dime and hold it out in front of you to cover the moon. You will see the moon is the same size both in front and overhead.
46470
Acutally, the moon's phase isn't tilted, you're tilted.  If you saw the moon early this morning (1/26/06), it was a sliver over in the eastern sky. The bright portion looked like it had rotated counterclockwise. However, it's you, due to the rotation of the earth, that are tilted away from the axis of the moon. If you look at the moon closer to noon, the lighted portion will not appear to be tilted.
1027284
because the sun's gravitational pull is much greater than the earth's...same reason the moon goes around the earth and not the other way around
280642
It is a coincidence.\n\nThe sun is much larger than the moon (~400 times), and yet the moon is much closer than the sun (~400 times).\nIt is remarkable coincidence that right now, as seen from the Earth, both the moon and the sun appear the same size.\nIt will not stay this way forever, the moon is very slowly moving away from the Earth, eventually it will get far enough away that it will look smaller than the sun and there will be no such thing as a total solar eclipse.
1090141
Well, not a REAL man. It just looks like the moon has a face if you stare at it for awhile. It's really just the craters and landscape that gives the illusion of a "face."
972381
The moon is visible all over the world (not just the Western hemisphere).  In a 24 hour period the moon will be above the horizon for 12 of those hours.  Depending on where the moon is in it's orbit relative to the sun determines when it is visible in the day.  \n\nNew moon is when the moon is nearest the sun, and full moon is when it is furthest away.  That is why a full moon is really only visible at night.  \n\nFirst quarterr moon rises about noon and sets about midnight.  Last quarte moon rises about midnight and sets around noon.\n\nThe moon is brighter than the sky at daytime and so it is visible even against the blue sky of a sunny day.
519531
cause it is the moon in front of him
326074
Braxton Paul has two out of the three reasons.\n\nOne has to do with frames of reference.  There are objects on the horizon to which the Sun or Moon can be compared.  Try holding your finger up against the Moon when it is rising or setting vs. when it is overhead.  \n\nAnother as to do with the nature of the atmosphere, which makes the Sun or Moon look larger when their light passes through more of it.  \n\nBut Carl Sagan discussed an experiment carried out in a darkened planetarium dome, where it was demonstrated that even without reference objects, we tend to perceive objects at the horizon as larger than objects overhead.  We have no explanation for why this is so.
330323
what? I don't think the moon appears stationary since it travels across the sky and goes through phases.\nWhat?
756100
i would generally say no its not, as the atmosphere is only between 5 adn 10 miles high, the moon is considerably further away than this.\n\ncant explainy why its like this has something to do with the creation of the solar system the mood being far away and such.
823013
It's an optical illusion.  When the Moon is low on the horizon, we can easily compare its size with the size of familiar things like trees and buildings, while when it is high in the sky we can't compare it as easily.\n\nTo prove this to yourself, the next time you see the Moon, hold your pinky finger up at arms length to "cover" the Moon, and you'll notice it covers the Moon quite easily.  Make a mental note of the size of your little finger compared to the size of the Moon.  Now the next time you see the Moon look huge along the horizon, do the pinky thing again, and you'll notice it's really the same size as before.
435638
The reason why they are more prevelant on the near side of the moon is because the Earth shields that side from meteoric impacts.\n\nSince the same side always faces Earth, the other side doesn't have the protection of the massive earth to suck up all the inbound meteors.  Thus, there are more impacts on the far side of the moon and more craters and less maria.
245326
It's an optical illusion, because you can easily compare it to other objects on the ground when the moon is closer to the ground.
1059515
Look, this is an optical illusion, and it's hard to pinpoint a single reason because human perception is incredibly complex ... there is more than one process in effect.  I've studied human perception for years, and there are things like size constancy, the Ponzo illusion, oculomotor micropsia, etc.  So the EXACT answer you are looking for is a complex answer.\n\n... This is the best link I've found on the topic, and the answer is not simple:\nhttp://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/\n\nOne thing to watch out for, whenever you see two photographs side-by-side like in that link you provided (BBC should be ashamed), they are meaningless unless they are of the same scene on the same night, using the same camera settings.\n\nThe two photographs in your link are terribly exaggerated versions caused by the focal length of the *camera* used to take the photos.  I guarantee you that if you look at a cityscape like the picture on the left, the moon will *not* look like the moon in that photo.
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.
536217
The Moon's mass is less but you're closer to the centre.   Gravity goes up as the square of your distance from the centre.
700627
The rotation of the moon just happens to be in the same sync as its orbit around the earth, so we only see one side. From the looks of the moon, though, it's speculated that the moon may have orbited faster or rotated faster, etc because there are crater marks on the earth side also, just not as many.\n\nActually, the moon is locked in its orbit so it always faces the Earth. The Moon is NOT perfectly round...technically its shaped like an egg due to the effects of gravity from the earth and possibly too when the moon was formed bilions of years agao after a huge meteor crashed into the earth and some of the Earth's molten core spewed out into space. Because the Earth is more massive than the Moon, it pulls on the Moon, "stretching" it closer to the Earth, throwing the shape and axis off, causing the moon unable to rotate on its own axis. This same effect is seen by the moons of other massive planets like Jupiter and Saturn. The same is effect is also seen with Mercury due to its close proximity the Sun and its massive gravitational effects.