What do you see, when you see the moon illusion?

1. about 25 - 30 %

2. yes. my (subconscious?)brain accepts it as a real change in size (same %)

3. closer

4. leaning toward on the same plane, but I think over time we grow to accept that it is closer to us.

but when its on the horizon it seems much closer, almost as if its in the atmosphere.

also, I tend to see it more red on the horizon.

1. It appears bigger about 50% in area (This would make is ~1.25 in a single dimension). The phenomena is most pronounced when the moon is at or near full.

2. Yea, it is my brain telling me.

3. Unobstructed overhead, it appears farther. But I have some trees and it looks bigger, i.e., closer when overhead, but in the trees.

4. On the horizon, definitely in front of the dome. Likewise when in the trees, but overhead.

Out in the open, it still appears in front of the background, but not so much. The main reason is that it is so dang brite that it washes out the background near by it making it appear closer than the dome.

What do I see? I see Ponzo; a mental phenomenon of inappropriate size constancy scaling.

Perceptual constancy denotes the tendency of animals and humans to see familiar objects as having standard shape, size, colour, or location regardless of changes in the angle of perspective, distance, or lighting. This tendency plays tricks on the brain under certain conditions, such as when an object is brilliant against a dark background, and when all familiar objects of comparison are removed from the field of view. The Ponzo illusion is a well known example that exploits this phenomenon specifically known as size constancy...

It is like looking at an object on a lake or ocean from the perspective of the end of a road lined with houses or trees or any familiar object... If there is a distant ship, or a mountain range lining the horizon in the field of view, it appears enormous from this perspective at the end of a street: yet, if you venture down that street toward the shoreline, the ship or mountain range seems to shrink rapidly as the rest of your field of view opens wide to 180°.

I think the brain's wiring for perceptual constancy explains the moon illusion quite well, but I have found a website that refutes the adequacy of the Ponzo illusion to explain all its aspects.

I hope you and your people come up with an experiment to explore this matter: Here's my data from recent memory:

1. Yes: from memory it seems to be roughly 50% bigger, but this varies with the size of other objects in the field of view especially near the horizon ...(...a confounding variable you'd have to control in your experiment?...)

2. Yes, physically larger... at least by half as much as when it is overhead.

3. Closer than when overhead.

4. I haven't really noticed whether or not the bright full Moon seems to lie in front of the starry background: However, during a total lunar eclipse, it definitely seems to lie in front of the starry background. Every time this has happened, I have been amazed at how the Moon appears to jump out towards me in 3d... and to me the disc itself often looks more like a 3d ball or globe during a lunar eclipse... wheras the full moon looks like a flat silver plate with few stars bright enough to pierce its glare.

1. when on the horiaon it appears to be bigger to me by about 25%

2. No my brain says it is not a physically bigger object

3. further

4. in front of for horizon moon

and exactly on starry dome when overhead

by way of 'Moon phantasm', I take it you mean the actuality that the Moon looks greater whilst close to the horizon, and smaller whilst way up interior the sky? if so, no. See, the Moon orbits as quickly as each 28 days or so. so because it truly is the era over which it strikes by way of its orbital ellipse, getting farther removed from us and then closer lower back on each cycle. even in spite of the incontrovertible fact that, the time taken for the Moon to bypass each of how around and happen interior the comparable place interior the sky as seen from a particular place on earth is purely a sprint extra desirable than an afternoon, because of the fact it relies on earth's rotation. In different words, the Moon passes the horizon (thereby getting 'interestingly' greater and smaller in accordance to the phantasm) approximately fifty 4 cases in the time of all and sundry of its relatively orbits.

Yes, this is a wel known illusion.

The constellations also look huge when on the horizon. For example Orion looks far larger on the horizon than when overhead.

The Moon does look bigger close to the horizon, but it is an illusion. You can make the illusion go away by looking at it upside down. Either stand on your head or look between your legs of to one side of your body; whatever you have to do to see it upside down. Then it will look small again. This is true for all things on the horizon, like distant trees or buildings or anything. I have tried it and it is true. Everything on the horizon looks smaller when viewed upside down.

What do you mean nobody really knows what causes it? We know exactly what causes it...and that is the varying perception of the size of an object when you have adjacent foreground objects to compare it to.

In other words, objects at the same distance always appear larger when they are placed behind but visually close to another object and smaller when they are by themselves. (Assuming there are no other clues to the object's real size.) Now, maybe nobody has come up with an explanation of why our brain makes that interpretation...but the phenomenon itself is quite well understood.

Good observation, I truly cant answer that because I don't really think of these things when gazing at the moon