[생활 속의 과학] Is the moon really big in Colorado? – Colorado Times

Among the Colorado songs that Koreans like, there is a song called “Moonlight on the River Colorado”. Composed by Robert A. King in 1930, an immigrant who has left his hometown longs for the woman he promised to marry under the moonlight that shines over the Colorado River. This song has been sung by Korean singers and American artists. In 1937, Mr. Park Yeong-ho adapted it, and Eun-hee and Lee Mi-ja made it into a popular song.

If you are moonlighting in Colorado, you will see a large moon floating brightly in the sky and sometimes you will think of your hometown, but you will be surprised by the exceptionally large moon over the United States. According to Star Walk, the reason the full moon looks big is that it looks big as the distance between the moon and the earth approaches due to the moon’s orbit, creating a supermoon (perigee syzygy). the optical illusion of the moon.

A supermoon is created when the moon is closest to the earth in a given orbit (within 90%). Originally, this term was defined by the American astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 and is used by many people. The approximately 413-day supermoon, which makes the moon appear about 14 percent larger than usual, can be observed over Colorado on August 1 (supermoon) and August 30 (blue moon), 2023.

But most of the time, the moon appears largest when it rises above the horizon. This is due to the moon illusion created by our eyes. NASA (NASA) gives weight to optical illusions, although there is no clear scientific explanation for the fact that the size of the moon does not change as the real moon rises and sets. An easy way to know that it is an optical illusion is to take a photo of the moon rising with the camera magnification fixed, then take a photo of the moon floating in the sky and compare the two images to see that they are the same size. Another method is to compare the moon in time by rolling a piece of paper or bending down and looking at the moon between your legs, you may find that the moon isn’t big.

Optical illusions can be explained by the Ebbinghaus optical illusion or the Ponzo optical illusion, let’s say an illusion The Ponzo illusion, proposed by the Italian psychologist Mario Ponzo, is an optical illusion in which, when horizontal lines of the same length are arranged horizontally in a trapezoid, the top line appears longer.

No matter where you look, the moon is the same size, but if you encounter a newly risen full moon in the eastern sky during a supermoon, you’ll find Colorado’s moon much larger than usual.