Not so Summer Solstice Sky for me...

Sky Watch Friday post time!!! (Please visit our host, Tom's blog to participate in Sky Watch Fridays. So much fun!!! I highly recommend it!) Today's Sky Watch Friday Shot is a shot at my sky yesterday... of course, I was attempting to see the Summer Solstice Moon. I actually got set up in a decently picturesque spot facing east with Mini-Dew and bf's children, trying to see the glorious illusion... unfortunately, my only view was of some distance thunderheads, which were beautifully illuminated by the setting sun.Now, mind you, this would have been ok, had I gotten a piece of the thunderstorm action, but it was off in the distant east, and I had to get Mini-Dew off to beddy-bye after sitting up to catch a piece of the Solstice Moon "illusion"... which we didn't see... grumble, grumble... but I'm not bitter. lol. The more I read about the Solstice Moon illusion, the more interested I become. I have seen it before, and I wanted desperately to capture it but apparently...

Moons on film are the same size regardless of elevation. Apparently, only human beings see giant moons. High moons and low moons make the same sized spot, yet the brain insists one is bigger than the other. Maybe it's the shape of the sky. Humans perceive the sky as a flattened dome, with the zenith nearby and the horizon far away. It makes sense; birds flying overhead are closer than birds on the horizon. When the moon is near the horizon, your brain, trained by watching birds (and clouds and airplanes), miscalculates the Moon's true distance and size. ~source

Still interested in more information...? Keep reading...

"Full Moons that occur close to the summer solstice are special because they follow the lowest path across the sky of all of the year's full Moons." explains Dr. George Lebo, a NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center Summer Faculty Fellow. "Moons seen just above the horizon look much larger than normal. It's an optical illusion, of course, but it's still a pretty sight."

Why does a moon viewed close to the horizon appear bigger than one seen high in the sky? It's a question that scientists and philosophers have debated for thousands of years. The Moon is same distance away in both cases, it shines with the same brightness, and it subtends the same angular diameter (1/2 degree). Logically, there should be no difference, but most observers perceive one anyway.

According to the most popular explanation, which springs from the "apparent distance theory" offered by psychologists Kaufman and Rock in 1962, a moon viewed near the horizon seems farther away than one shining down from overhead. Curiously, this causes the horizon Moon to appear bigger (we usually think of more distant objects as appearing smaller). The effect is similar to the 'Ponzo' railroad track illusion, illustrated here.

Right: In 1913 Mario Ponzo presented the well-known railroad track illusion in which two identical bars are drawn across a pair of converging lines. The upper yellow bar appears much larger because it spans a greater apparent distance between the rails. In fact, the two bars are exactly the same width. This effect may be at work with the mysterious horizon moon illusion. Distance cues like foreground mountains and trees may cause the horizon moon to appear more distant than a moon that is high in the sky. As in the Ponzo illusion, the more distant-seeming Moon appears wider. In fact, the Moon subtends a constant 1/2 degree angle no matter how high it is above the horizon. It's all a trick of the eye. ~source

Incidentally, it is said that if you "squish" the moon, between your forefinger and thumb, eliminating the foreground, the illusion disappears. Cool, huh? It's important to note that sometimes pilots see this effect without any foreground, so that's not the only factor that generates the illusion.

So, even though I don't have an attempted shot captured of the "illusion" since I had the thunderstorm obstruction, I haven't given up... I try again during the solstice next year.

Aside from all that, there were 4 tornado reports yesterday in the upper midwest. There are more severe weather slight risk areas hatched out by the Storm Prediction Center for the next few days. The tropical wave, this morning, was still churning in the Atlantic, though it looks less impressive and is headed for a VERY HEAVILY sheared environment. The Storm Prediction Center has updated the tornado trend graphic... no words can properly express my awe of this historically tornadic year...
I wonder what the fall season will show us...

During lunch yesterday, bf and I went for an adventurous ride down a dirt road neither of us had traveled on before... I was able to capture a couple of nice canopy shots...Have a lovely day,
~Dewdrop