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To: nickcarraway

Could it really be that huge?


5 posted on 03/13/2012 11:28:10 PM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: presently no screen name

It’s all a matter of perspective. :)

The moon is over 2000 miles across; it only looks small because of the distance. Because it’s so far away, moving around on earth doesn’t really change its apparent size. But as you walk away from a building, it looks a lot smaller a lot faster. Line them up at the right distance (this fellow was about 15 miles away from the observatory) with a lens long enough that the moon fills the frame, this is the result.


8 posted on 03/14/2012 12:10:38 AM PDT by fluorescence
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To: presently no screen name

The apparent size is caused by refraction. Back when I was a navigator (before GPS) we had published tables to correct for the distortion when using the moon for a celestial fix.


16 posted on 03/14/2012 3:40:55 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
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