I've seen it too, many times throughout my life. It's just what NASA says it is, IMO. Sometimes it's particularly spectacular when it's also orange. Don't they call that the "harvest moon?"

I saw it this year while driving over the McArthur Causeway from South Beach, it was an amazing and beautiful sight. The skyline, the water, too bad I had no camera with me that night.

btw, since I can see no paranormal link, I'm moving this thread over to the space forum.

So the illusion is a theory and not necessarily a fact?

Out of you guys that have seen the large moon, how large was it? The largest moon that I have seen was about as big as a mountain. It was freakin HUGE! It really freaked me out. Of course that was about a year ago or so. I haven't seen one that big in a long time.

I just think there is more to it than an illusion. I don't know what though.

I read somewhere that it appears to larger the closer to the horizon it sets from the perspective of the viewer.

Reason for this is because of Earth's atmosphere causes the illusion of magnifying the moon.

It usually looks biggest when it is near the horizon. Maybe it does have something to do with magnification, as stated in the post above, but I read that the magnification does not add up to much of a noticable difference.

I heard it's an optical illusion that has something to do with the relative size of other things on the horizon.

Next time the Moon looks big, try this experiment. Get a ruler and hold it in your hand with your arm fully extended, and measure the big-looking Moon (measure as precisely as the ruler allows [1/16 inch, 1 mm]). After a few hours, when the Moon has risen in the sky, and it looks small again, re-take the measurement. Use the same meathod as before -- with your arm fully extended. You will see that the two measurements are the same, and the Moon really wasn't any bigger in the earlier measurement.

[edit on 9/19/2007 by Soylent Green Is People]

Back in November 1997, first week of the month, I was driving from NJ to Boston. Somewhere in Connecticut, not far from the MA border, the moon appeared on the horizon so incredibly large that my BF and I had to pull over to observe it.

It was so large it took up nearly the entire skyline and appeared as if it were going to swallow up the earth. I've researched as best as I could, but the descriptions of the "optical illusion" moon just don't fit this specific scenario, and never in any pictures of such an event have I found one to appear as large as what I saw that evening.

It was actually quite frightening at the time... as the only thing we could think of was that the moon and earth were indeed about to collide.

I'venever seen anything like it before or since.

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
I've researched as best as I could, but the descriptions of the "optical illusion" moon just don't fit this specific scenario,

Why not? It was on the horizon, wasn't it? Our mind assumes objects directly overhead are closer than they are on the horizon - clouds are much closer when directly overhead than when on the horizon. This is not true of the moon though, so when it's on the horizon our mind assumes it's much farther away (and consequently much larger) than when it is directly overhead.

and never in any pictures of such an event have I found one to appear as large as what I saw that evening.

Naturally, that optical illusion doesn't work in photographs since your mind isn't interpreting it as part of a true distant horizon anymore. In fact, since the moon appears to be the same size in photographs taken on the horizon and high in the sky with the same equipment, it proves that it's just an illusion which can only be seen in person.

Originally posted by slimpickens93
I read somewhere that it appears to larger the closer to the horizon it sets from the perspective of the viewer.

Reason for this is because of Earth's atmosphere causes the illusion of magnifying the moon.

Im thinking it also has alot to do with the phase the moon is in. Full moons look so large because they are soaking up more light, and by proxy, reflecting more light to become bent, thus enlarging its apparent view from your event horizon.

About a year ago it was early in the morning and I thought that the sun was rising without any glare. I couldn't figure it out, thinking that it must have something to do with atmospheric pollution given that it was near the horizon. So I stared at it in amazement and then noticed around 45 degrees to the East the Sun was rising. So this must be the moon? But it was too big to be the moon. I even thought for several days that it must be a second moon or Niburu or Planet X that had come into our solar system without anyone being told. Really, I've seen the moon a lot in my lifetime, and never never before did it seem any bigger than usual. Could it be that it has undergone a strange orbit, or do those chemtrails really screw up the optics at the Earth's surface?

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Maybe it's the same illusion you get when you see cows or sheep on hills/fields, sometimes for some reason the looks like giants. Anyone know what I mean?

[edit on 22-12-2008 by _Phoenix_]

I've seen it too, always in the summer. I believe it is in optical illusion, just like looking through a glass of water. Our atmosphere is the same I guess. And for those who are talking about pictures they've taken recently. Isnt the moon its closest to us now as it has been for a long long time? I remember reading about this a few weeks before xmas.

Originally posted by Lee_K
And for those who are talking about pictures they've taken recently. Isnt the moon its closest to us now as it has been for a long long time? I remember reading about this a few weeks before xmas.

No, the moon's orbit has a closest point and a furthest point since it is not perfectly circular. A short time before christmas we had a full moon during the closest point in its orbit, called periapsis.