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Do you suffer from Bad Astronomy?

Posted by (Melissa Drake) on Tue 3 Sep 2002 - 13:26
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Everyone knows that meteors heat up in the Earth's atmosphere because of friction and that the moon only looks bigger at the horizon because the thick air acts like a lens... right?
If this and other cosmic myths are your "well known facts", maybe you need BadAstronomy.com

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KT — Wed 4 Sep 2002 - 04:50
#1
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I love BadAstronomy.com! The site has a movie review section that points out astronomical errors in movies such as "Armageddon". It's a fun read!

Anon — Thu 5 Sep 2002 - 16:32
#2
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this is a GREAT site! But they never did answer why the moon looks bigger on the horizon; they gave 2 hypothesis that negated eachother

mwalimu — Fri 6 Sep 2002 - 09:07
#3
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I thought it explained reasonably well that it's an optical illusion. Sometime when the moon is up in the sky well above the horizon, stuck your thumb up at arm's length and compare it to the visible size of the moon. Then another time when it's near the horizon, do the same thing. You'll find that the moon is the same size relative to your thumb.

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About the author

MelSkunk (Melissa Drake) — read stories — contact (login required)

a student and Skunk from Toronto, ON, interested in writting, art, classic cars and animals