Xaryn Mar said:
CrystalShadow said:
Sonic Doctor said:
B0BX said:
You can tell that it's a western rpg because the moon is such a reasonable size.
It was definitely smaller than JRPGs, but it still wasn't a reasonable size. I can go outside and hide the moon from my sight with my thumb.
That moon would take a big giant head to hide it from my view.
Meh. The moon changes size depending on a lot of weird factors.
I've personally seen it be about the size of a pea, up to about the size of a large watermelon (and bright red).
I don't know what exactly causes the difference, but it doesn't have an obvious fixed size, even though simple reasoning suggests it should.
The moon always stays the same size (incidentally the same size as the Sun and your thumb). Just try it the next few times you see a large (or small) Moon. Physics (and astronomy) is fun and educationel, use it.
I studied undergraduate physics at university. I'm well aware the moon doesn't change size thank you. XD
But we are talking
appearances here. And in terms of observing the moon from the earth, several factors arise that don't have a direct relation to the physical size of the moon.
To begin with, there is a minor issue with the actual distance between the earth and the moon. This isn't likely to have a huge effect, because the only real factor is the the distance between the earth and the moon, which is likely to vary a little (since most orbits are elliptical, rather than circular), but not on a scale that's likely to be statistically significant.
(and not one I want to bother calculating either.)
However, the more significant factor, and most assuredly the reason for the moon looking red, is of course the atmosphere.
Air can bend light after all - especially since the boundary between it and space seems to be curved. (as can gravity. But that's a slightly different issue). And since the volume of air between any given location on the surface of the earth and an object out in space varies depending on the angle.
(The effect is much easier to spot with the sun. From memory, at sunset the sun seems to be anything from about 2 to 3 times the size that it is at noon.)
Now if you'll excuse me... Trying to use my brain for this long is giving me a headache. I dropped out of studying physics because I hate doing math.
But whatever.