Current Solar X-rays: Current Geomagnetic Field: |
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Sunday, March 5: Two days before the moon is full… Its rising time for the Lehigh Valley is approximately 4:15 p.m. Wait until it gets dark before making your phase observations.
Monday, March 6: One day before the full moon… Its rising time is about 5:15 p.m., but again give the moon a chance to gain some altitude so that it can be observed in a dark sky before judging its phase.
Tuesday, March 7: The moon is in opposition to the sun tonight in its full phase, rising when the sun sets and setting when the sun rises. It will be visible all night long. This is the best phase to witness the moon illusion. See below.
Wednesday, March 8: Luna is one day after being full with a rising time of approximately 7:15 p.m. Wait until 9 p.m. to observe Luna in the SE.
Thursday, March 9: The rising time is at 8:15 p.m. Observe the moon in the SE by 10 p.m.
The other misconception that I would like to address is how big the moon looks when it is on the horizon, better known as the Moon Illusion. It is a perceptual difficulty of the brain not based upon any measurable clues. The same illusion can be created on a two-dimensional surface as seen in the slide that I developed to illustrate this effect here. According to the intuitive brain, the moon on the horizon is considered to be more distant than the moon which appears higher in the sky. The brain accepts this lunar distance misconception, while the eye messages to the brain that Luna is the same size anywhere in the sky. This causes the brain to make the moon look larger near to the horizon than it actually appears. The moon illusion is most likely not created by comparing Luna against a background of objects that appear smaller, but which the brain knows would appear larger if you were closer to them. * The moon's rising times are posted, but you may have to wait until Luna clears your local horizon. Check out these two misconceptions this week and prove these fallacies for yourself. Ad Astra!
Venus and Jupiter approached each other to within a half degree in the western sky on March 1. Skies cleared just long enough at dusk to capture the pair my neighbors' Oak and Ash trees. Gary A. Becker image taken with a Pixel 7 Pro mounted on a tripod... |
The Moon Illusion can be demonstrated by using an inverted Ponso diagram as seen in the above illustration. All of the moons are exactly the same size. Center your focus between the first and second rung from the top of the ladder and gaze at the moon above and below. The lower moon should look slightly larger. The right side of the illustration is to prove that the moons are all the same angular diameter. This picture was used as the front cover of a book which is shown below. It was the hardest $75 that I ever earned. Gary A. Becker slide above-Routledge cover below... |
Left to right: Joshua Swain, Joshneil Ferguson, and Victor Rivera view Venus (higher) and Jupiter from Moravian University's Sky Deck on March 9. Image by Gary A. Becker using a Pixel 7 Pro... |
The sunset on St. Patrick's Day was orange? Image by Gary A. Becker using a Pixel 7 Pro... |
Charles Schultz's "Wild Commas" inspired this blog. |