Geek in Review: Reach Out to the Stars

This week's Geek in Review is all about my love of science, especially astronomy, beginning with my first memory, looking at the moon when I was two or three years-old:

We lived in the Northwestern San Fernando valley, in a converted chicken coop on my grandparents’ property, which was one of many one-acre farms that shared space with weird-o hippie communes from the late sixties through the mid-seventies.

My dad was excited as he took me and my mom out of the house to stand beneath the walnut tree. Once outside, he didn’t even need to tell us why. There, rising over the pasture behind our house, was the biggest moon I’ve ever seen in my life. It was yellow and full and covered the entire horizon, like a drawing from a science fiction pulp novel. It was nighttime, but the glow of the moon lit up the ground in front of us as far as I could see, turning the leafless trees at the back fence into bony hands, reaching into the sky.

I stood between them in my OshKosh B’Gosh overalls, mom holding my left hand and dad holding my right, and stared at it while it slowly climbed into the sky. Though I was too young to understand the concept of beauty, I was still impressed; it was the biggest thing I’d ever seen in my life.

My dad picked me up and held me close to him. “That’s the moon,” he said. I can still hear the awe in his voice. In that moment, my life long love affair with space and science began.

By happy coincidence, I traded some e-mails with Phil Plait, better known as The Bad Astronomer, while I wrote my column, and I asked him if he could explain why the moon appeared to cover the entire horizon in my memory. He said:

You are a victim of The Moon Illusion!

You caught me in an expansive mood; I'm full of coffee and I just wrote 11,000+ words about black holes for my next book. So hang on.

The illusion is just that: an illusion. It can be really amazing, but in reality, even in your head, the Moon only looks two or three times bigger. This can be amplified by memory; some people swear they remember the Moon eating up the whole sky as you do (remember it, I mean, not that you eat the whole sky).

The illusion is a combination of two things. the first is the Ponzo illusion, where your brain interprets things as being bigger if it thinks they are farther away.

Second, the sky is not exactly hemisphere-shaped to our brains, it actually looks like an inverted bowl. Think of it this way: clouds overhead are maybe two miles up, but clouds near the horizon are a hundred miles away. So the sky looks bowl-shaped.

So when the Moon is on the horizon, your brain thinks it's farther away than when it's overhead. The Ponzo illusion kicks in, and your brain gets fooled into thinking the Moon is HUGE. As it gets higher, the illusion vanishes. If you actually observe the Moon with binoculars or with a 'scope, you can see it is no bigger on the horizon. In fact, it should look smaller because it's a few thousand miles farther away than when it's overhead.

It has nothing to do with foreground objects, atmospheric refraction or anything like that. it's a plain old illusion. I wrote a whole chapter about this in my first book, matter of fact. It was tough to research since people argue so vehemently over this topic. Fun though.

Phil's comments, and my ability to ask him for them, are yet another reason why we are so lucky to be alive at this moment. At what other time could I so simply and easily ask an astronomer such a noob question, and get an answer back so quickly?

This was one of those columns that easily could have turned into 5000 words, and I'm not entirely happy with the way I cut it down to keep it readable. I love science so much, and I am so fascinated by astronomy, that once I get going, it's hard for me to keep things brief. I didn't even get into Hyperspace (fish scientists FTW!) and all the stuff I learned about black holes and quantum physics when I was in my early twenties. I totally suck at math, and I've never taken anything higher than Algebra 2, so the fact that I can get even an elementary understanding of these subjects speaks volumes about the people who've written books about them.

If you're of a scientific mind, and you can communicate scientific ideas to guys like me, please keep on doing it. We're assaulted by pseudo- and anti-science on an almost daily basis, it seems, and enlightening the ignorant is the only way we're ever going to get off this planet before we destroy it.

Comments

[Tyler]

Awesome GIR! thanks a bunch.
There are few people who kick as much ass as Phil Plait (you're one, Chuck Norris is another); I hope this GIR gives lots of folks the chance to get to know him and his blog.
Thanks again, Wil.

[LokiDeCat]

starshine_diva:
No digital was harmed in the experiment. It was a very old-skewl, manual SLR-type photography class.

She expected us to see some brilliant, life-defining, sudden moment, and then do F-Stop math to capture the moment.

"Yes, Brad. Keep that stream of milk coming out of your nose whilst I calculate the middle-gray values of 2% milk."

[Anne]

I'm sure this post was brilliant as they usually are, but I didn't read it, mostly because I wanted to get a message to you and I figured this is the most effective method.

My copy of Dancing Barefoot just came in the mail (I know I'm a few years behind the times on this one)and I really wanted to tell you how much Houses in Motion means to me. I had that home away from home, I had that great aunt. It is very seldom that I cry over a book, but reading your story broke my heart. I remember doing the same things, packing, reminiscing, crying, when I was 15. The difference is I never ever said goodbye to that house, even after it was torn down. I can't begin to tell you how I felt after reading that story, all I know is that it really touched me. Thank you for putting into writing feelings and experiences that I still find difficult to deal with.

Thanks
Anne

[Animeraider]

Isaac Asimov wrote a great series of books on physics, chemistry and astronomy that break the science down not into laymen's terms but into terms the average science fiction reader could grok.

He wrote a science column in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine for decades, and those articles are also published in book form. It's a great way to understand the concepts and even (gasp!) the math.

[Rook]

It's amazing how memory has a way of increasing the size of things. The bridge that spans the Mississippi at Hastings seemed humongous when I was a kid, especially when riding in the back of a pick up truck.

Today, not so much.

What's really lousy is how time seems so much shorter. As a kid, summer lasted a lifetime. Now, it's barely a breath.

Oh, and by the way .

[starshine_diva]

HAHAHAHA
LokiDeCat , you make me laugh...

[FABIAN]

Wil,

This is a great entry, to me. To remember non sliding facts, with your mom , is great. Those kinds of moons are amazing in all stages of life. Don't give up on your fellow man. Sometimes it only takes one person for us not to destroy the planet. That person could have been born today.

FG

[SarahD]

Thanks, SeeJane.

Wil, as a former English major and non-science nerd, I have to say that article was very cool.

That’s so awesome that you saw the set of Star Wars!

[Kari]

Wil,

I had the privilege of meeting Phil Plait at Dragon*Con last year and listened to him try to explain to a very rowdy room just what exactly a "parsec" was. Fun times!! I have a signed copy of Bad Astronomy that I really enjoyed reading so was very glad to see you and Phil make a connection. :)

Can't wait for his next book and hopefully I'll be able to get it signed, too!

Kari
The Signal podcast - Expanding the 'Verse

[1BigBank]

The two most fascinating times that I've looked up at the sky and thought, wow.

Two: Sitting in Temagami (N. Ontario) wondering if it was the MIR space station travelling slowly across a pitch black night sky with the Milky Way in the background?

One: I was on my way to play hockey at the local multi-rink and I looked up to see (I might have the name wrong) Comet Hale-Bop.
That blew me away. Now I go and look up if Comets travel through space tail first. Someone told me they do so now I'm curious.

Hey Wil, do you still play hockey at all? I quit when I opened up my store. I can't afford to get hurt, and these clowns in the men's leagues think they're in the Stanley Cup finals. I miss it. I might coach my nephew's team to get back out there.

Anyway, take care and gl with the book.

[Oz]

1BigBank

The comet's tail always points away from the sun as it is caused by the solar winds coming from the sun.

So, if the comet is heading towards the sun, the tail is behind it ... if the comet is heading away from the sun then the tail is in front.

[Andrew]

Anne, you may want to keep the hankies close by when you start reading I really wish I could tell you the title of the new book, but Wil would kill me. "Houses in Motion" is tame compared to a couple of things in this bad boy.

[projektleiterin]

I followed a link to your website on this blog http://mimknits.com/wordpress/?p=236
It's too funny, I remember watching Star Trek when I was younger and I remember you. It's interesting to see how young actors develop and it's cool that your interest in astronomy and science transcended your role as a member of a spaceship.

My most impressing memory of the moon was in Florence. I was standing with my class on the Ponte di Vecchio and the moon was gigantic and orange. I could swear that many things in Italy have a romantic touch that you won't find anywhere else.

[AAltair]

I laugh to read this post. I write an astronomy column, and last week I wrote about one of my earliest memories: it was of the moon. The column gets published tomorrow, but here's the copy, because I think you'll enjoy it:

Make Some Totally Lunar Memories

A few decades ago, in the middle of the night I was roused from sleep by my father, who picked me up, wrapped a coat around me in my favorite red pajamas (or were they yellow?), and carried me outside on his shoulders.

I was completely confused. It was cold, dark, and I knew I was supposed to be sleeping soundly - surrounded by my menagerie of stuffed animals. Then my father pointed up at the sky. There was the Moon. All I remember is that it was red. Then he took me back inside, tucked me in, and I fell asleep.

What amazes me is that I still remember that much detail, and I was only three or four. I now know it was a total lunar eclipse he was showing me, and I’ve learned a lot of the science behind it.

Now it’s your turn:

On August 28, 2007 we’ll get to see the whole show again - a total lunar eclipse best viewed from the West Coast of North America (that’s us!). The eclipse starts at 1:00 am on Tuesday morning, but the best part will last from 3:00 am to 5:30 am – so set your alarm for early and take a peek. The end won’t be until 7:30 am. I recommend either just watching part of it, or taking Tuesday off from work!

This is published and copyright by Alice Enevoldsen, Pacific Science Center, in Seattle, WA.

[vark]

Wil: One place with a high density of math geeks is the forum at xkcd, if you ever need to call on the power of the internet without invoking clever nick name or stopping by teh soapbox - which just isn't the same without a link from here.
animereader: asimov's first 600 books were ok, but his later stuff wasn't the same.
moon illusion: try holding a quarter at arm's length. should be about the size of the moon.
my dad-and-lunar-eclipse story is more bitter than sweet, and i won't tell it here. but he did take me to hear asimov once.

[Nick]

If a post is 5,000 words. It’s 5,000 words. It’ll be okay. It doesn’t matter if everyone likes it, the right people will get it.

[Greg]

Hi Will,

When I found this article through www.spaceweather.com, I thought immediately of your Geek in Review article, Reach Out To the Stars. I thought you migh forget about PayPal for a few minutes and enjoy it.

Greg
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/27jun_moonillusion.htm

[JennyW]

Wil - I've recently re-acquainted myself with my love of astronomy. Do check out www.heavens-above.com if you haven't ever seen it. Enter your latitude and longitude and it'll tell you when just about any celestial or satellite event that you want will happen at your house. It's amazingly accurate!