Ever notice that the moon looks bigger when it’s low on the horizon, seen through trees or next to buildings?
This optical illusion is not fully understood by scientists or psychologists. But there is truth to the fact that the moon appears larger at times because it is slightly closer to the earth. No orbiting body has a perfectly circular orbit. Orbiting bodies like asteroids, planets, moons, etc. have elliptical orbits and Astronomers refer to the apogee and perigee of orbiting bodies. Apogee is when the moon, or other orbiting body, is farther away and Perigee is when the moon is closer to the earth.
This Friday, Dec. 12, the Full Moon is at Perigee in the east. Moonrise will be a Full Moon about 31,000 miles closer than when the moon is at Apogee. If my math is correct, that’s about 14% closer. Since you will see this at sunset, the optical illusion should be spectacular. A truly giant moon rise in the east. The moon will also be about 30% brighter, so you will be able to easily see the moon before sunset and watch as it rises, appearing to get smaller throughout the evening. For your reference hold your thumb out at arms length to gauge the size of the moon. As the moon rises and appears to get smaller you will notice that the size in relation to your thumb will NOT change. Cool.
So how come you can’t see the Apollo landing sites, even with the Hubble Space Telescope?
AZ bob