Big Moon Rising

[Chillum]

Sometimes, in the movies, you'll see a scene, often on the beach,  where the moon appears to be huge, almost  filling the background. Is there anywhere where the moon can be seen like this, or is it movie-makers and their cinematrickery?

[ludwig]

The moon does appear to change size in the night sky,  but I believe the effect you're talking about in the movies is achieved using telephoto lenses.

[brachiopod]

When the moon is at a low angle in the sky, (ie just before rising or setting) the moon can appear bigger. This is due to refraction as the light reflected from the moon passes through a greater 'thickness' of atmosphere.

The effect in films, as ludwig says, is done using a telephoto lens. If required as a background to, say, two actors, the camera is placed further away from the subjects and a telephoto lens used. This will magnify the distant subjects so that they fill the frame, and the moon in the background is correspondingly magnified.

[Sky]

i suppose the same would work with the sun? i remember seeing it in windor last summer, and it was like a huge orange ball. was amazing, didnt seem real. i suppose it was just before sunset.

[rojash]

These answers are all nonsense. It's a natural effect of using a telephoto lense. Try this:

Look at something reasonably close, with the moon as a background. As you walk away, the object you have selected will seem to diminish in size much more quicly than the moon. Eventually the moon will be much large than the object you selected. Now look at it through a telescope or telephoto lens. The relative sizes of the moon and the object will remain the same, but they will now fill a much larger part of your field of vision., so the moon will seem enormous. This is also why in many movies when you see a shot like this the moon (or sun) appears distorted. The distortion is caused by the enormous magnification of the lens.

[rojash]

Apology.

Sorry for saying your answers were all nonsense! I was pasting from my offline text-editor and that line gotr left over from a different post

grovel, grovel...

[slimfandango]

It's a natural effect of the way your brain tries to pass information from your visual cortex and the geniculate nucleus to that EXTREMELY WEIRD thing you call consciousness.
How big is an orange? How big is a ball? It is one of the hard things for your brain to work out, is it a small ball in front of me, or is it a big ball, very far away.
To overcome this, the brain has to use other cues to establish distance and absolute size (for conscious vision).
The moon looks big on the horizon, but not above you. The 'ball of light' that exists in front of your eyes, as it were, is more or less the same size. Cut a hole in a piece of paper to match the moon size when above you, and compare it when its straight ahead, on the horizon. Your neighbours will stare, but it's the same size.
Your brain is not thinking of the sky in the same way when above compared to straight ahead. It tends to see that above you as closer to you, and that straight ahead as far away. Using this as a cue, it changes the size that your consciousness thinks the moon is (*).
Airline pilots, by the way, report having the same effect, even when other cues, and 'atmospheric distortion' are absent.
This perceived size distortion happens to you all the time, best shown in illusions like the Ponzo illusion (boxes on train tracks) and the big circle, little circle illusion (circles look bigger when beside littler circles).
*If you try to reach out and grab that moon, like you would the circles, your hand would prepare to pinch the same way for the moon above your head and that on the horizon. This is because the ACTION visual system is separate from the CONSCIOUSNESS visual system, and is not subject to the latters size distortions. Very weird.

[Chillum]

Thanks to all who have contributed. Slimfandango,.. effin' mentil answer.