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Crazy moon over NYC last night

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Martin.au said:
Hen3ry said:
drusus said:
Hen3ry said:
Brian D. Schneider said:
nzmacro said:
Martin.au said:
Admittedly the OP's moon purports to be much closer to the horizon where the moon would appear to be bigger. But is it close enough to the horizon for that to be a significant factor?
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Cheers, geoff

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The so-called "moon illusion", i.. the moon appearing bigger when it is closer to the horizon, is actually produced by the human brain. I knew this from coursework years ago (and at that time there was no explanation for it--not sure how much vision neuroscience has advanced since then on this question), but I only had a chance to confirm it a few months ago. There was a phenomenal moon over San Francisco and my wife decided to take a picture of it. In the photo the size appeared entirely ordinary.
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Gawd -- the neuroscience they poured into me in the late 1970s didn't mention that. I understood it was caused by the light passing at a very acute angle through the atmosphere which s acting as a lens. In fact, as the moon (or sun) rises or sets, you can actually defy the curvature of the earth and see it before it has truly appeared and after it has disappeared because the atmosphere bends the light.
Martin.au said:
With regards to the OP's photo, it does not look plausible. As others have said, the size of the moon (with visible craters) is too big to ever obtain it in the same frame as a piece of bridge. And the exposure is inconsistent the moon is properly exposed, and that requires daylight setting (or at best sunset settings), whereas the night-time bridge is also properly exposed. The dynamic range of the photo seems far beyond what any camera can accomplish. Instead, this photo looks like to separate photos, taken with lenses of different focal length, that have been superimposed.
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+1.
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I actually tested it. I measured the width of the moon at just above the horizon and at a high angle with a theodolite. Pretty sure there was no difference in angular width.
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Conclusive! Thanks for the info, Martin.

Cheers, geoff
 
Great use of compressed view as a result of using a longish focal length. The Moon is in the waxing phase (getting slightly fuller each night as it 'grows' from a slender crescent into a 'full' Moon. The phase in the photograph is also known as the first quarter. (Quarter because you can see approximately one quarter of the Moon's surface. Two more quarters make up the half of the Moon that we never see because it always faces away from the Earth.) I hope this all makes sense! Cheers.
 
rovingtim said:
tt321 said:
rovingtim said:
good point.
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But what about the exposure? How can the moon be that brightness with ISO200, F5.4 and long shutter speed?
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I noticed that. But if the image is convincingly photoshopped ... is that bad? It could be two exposures.
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I notice further down this thread they are discussing time and focal length. This shot could not have been captured at 8:00pm, the moon in that phase is in the wrong position for that time. Also, the moon is far to big for the focal length stated. So definitely photoshopped.
 
No photoshop. Was taken around midnight on 31st. Used a tripod and my epl-5 with 40-150mm.

Never seen something like that. It was shot in williamsburg brooklyn facing lower manhattan.
 
Thank you yes it does. Pretty crazy to see. Also impressed that the epl5 can capture that.
 
yeah i cropped the photo. I used spot meter on the moon so it exposed it. And tweaked lightness etc in ligntroom.



Here is the original non cropped.





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Hen3ry said:
Gawd -- the neuroscience they poured into me in the late 1970s didn't mention that. I understood it was caused by the light passing at a very acute angle through the atmosphere which is acting as a lens. In fact, as the moon (or sun) rises or sets, you can actually defy the curvature of the earth and see it before it has truly appeared and after it has disappeared because the atmosphere bends the light.
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That's correct regarding the appearance/disappearance of the moon at the horizon. But the Big Moon phenomenon is a brain-created illusion. No-one is sure precisely how/why it works, but the best guess IMO is that we see a bigger moon because our expectation of it being bigger is hardwired into our eye/brain system. It's an illusion you can't not see even when you know it's not real.

-Dave-
 
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