"Mark Elkington" wrote in message
om...
We left a party the other night and drove away up a hill. The moon was
full and low on the horizon, viewable through the branches of trees
and over the rooftops of houses at the top of the hill.

It looked huge, as big as the distant trees and houses.

As we drove toward the top of the hill, the moon shrank! By the time
we reached the top, the moon was only the size a soccer ball in the
branches of the now close trees.

So there you have it. Closeness to the horizon was not the cause, but
rather relative distances to terrestrial reference objects.

However the moon illusion also works at sea with NO terrestrial references
whatsoever.