Eli5, why does the moon appear larger earlier in the night, when it’s “rising” as opposed to later in the night when it’s higher in the sky?

Question

Eli5, why does the moon appear larger earlier in the night, when it’s “rising” as opposed to later in the night when it’s higher in the sky?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

It’s an optical illusion that no one has a 100% good explanation for yet.

If you hold an object of known size up next to The Moon while it’s high in the sky, it doesn’t start looking big again. Atmospheric lensing only makes it look a fraction larger than it really is. No where close to how much we overestimate its size to be while close to the horizon.

We really don’t know the origin of the illusion.