And I can see Venus to the SW, even though it's, more or less, still daylight.

Out the back the sky's all hazed over and once again there's nothing to see. That's where the moon is supposed to be.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sci...sky-on-Saturday.html

Hmmm....it'll look 30% brighter....GET YA SUNGLASSES RENTON!

Still only seeing Venus out the front....it's NW now, and am seeing one star at the back. Given the time and the star's position, it must be Arcturus 9around South and very high. It is possible the moon's there too, but if it is it's hidden by the trees.

Fluffy - question!!!

i did psychology and read aobut visual illusions - one called Moon Illusion where the moon looks massive in the sky

I never quite understood or believed it

So why does the moon sometimes look absolutely massive?

Going to look heeeeeyooooge tomorrow, there's a perigee .. the closest point of the moon to the earth , and it pretty much coincides with the full moon  .  Please let there not be clouds!

and here's the moon illusion explained ..http://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/

And now that we've all studied that in depth, ( ) are we any the wiser?

I started reading it last night, but fell asleep.

I've read it and I'm none the wiser. I'll just accept that the moon sometimes looks huge.

Lots of twinkly stars last night, the sky looked very pretty.

Without having deciphered that ^^^^ yet, I'll give you what I have always understood about why that illusion happens.

Imagine, if you will, that THE ATMOSPHERE is a band of a fixed thickness.

When we look up we are looking directly through through this 'band'.

The closer to the horizon we look the more of an angle through this 'band' we are looking, thus a greater 'thickness' of atmosphere.

Because of the distortion to the light this causes we perceive the size of the moon as larger than it really is.

I.E. The greater the amount of atmosphere we have to look through the greater the distortion in size.

Lots of atmosphere at the horizon = huge moon.

Medium amount of atmosphere 'half way up' the sky = medium sized moon.

Least amount of atmosphere 'up high' = small moon.

Because of the PERIGEE state tonight (it's closer, therefor looks bigger to start with) the illusion is going to makethe moon at the horizon even bigger, thus the term 'Supermoon'.

The moon rise about 8:45 tonight - ESE.

Yay Fluffy, I think I understood your post ^^^^.

I'm looking forward to seeing the moon tonight.  It was amazing last night, so hopefully will be even better tonight.

That basically sums up the visual angle illusion theory they waffle about on that link! 

When the moon comes up, if you do the " I'm crushing your head" thing ( close one eye, put one finger at the top you see of the moon, one at the bottom ) when it looks huge, the space between your fingers will be exactly the same as if you do it when the moon is high ( and much smaller looking)

Anyone see the moon yet? I've got a load of trees blocking my view in that direction, so even if it was the clearest night EVER ( ) I probably wouldn't be able to see it.

But I can see Venus to the west!

No sign of the moon yet but Venus is up there.

Yup, big fat pale gold moon .. lovely ! 

(but not as "Super" as I expected! )

I can see Venus when I go into the front garden and Lyra (I think) when I go into the back garden, but no sign of the moon.

It's still pretty low, so it's still behind the trees.

I'll hazard a guess and say it's probably Arcturus or Vega that you're seeing, not Lyra. Vega is about quareter of the way up the sky and Arcturus is half way up.

There's a sort of brightness behind the trees....I think the moon must be out....

....and when I look out of the upstairs window I can see it....just! It's still behind the trees, but near the tops, so I can see it a bit, but no real idea of apparent size.

I'll take your word for it. I was just guessing going by the star gazer app on son's ipad.

Yes, there's a brightness behind some neighbouring houses - but they are a bit higher up than me, so I can't see the moon.

Lyra is actually the name of the constellation, the principal star of which is Vega.

Given the hazyness of my sky, I doubt that you would be able to see all the stars that make up Lyra.

The BBC article about this says the

best effect was seen around 4:30 BST, shortly before it set.

So once again it would be near the horizon and thus in 'extra large' mode, unfortunately I was tucked up in my bed by this time, so missed the whole show!

I viewed it in all its glory last night from 9.30pm

Looking huge against a back drop then small again once silhouetted against the sky. Full on "moon illusion"

Then it disappeared behind buildings/cloud ... the devious minx!!

Ah, in that case, I could see Vega.

At present Venus is in the East, a bit lower and to the left of the Sun, so it might be too bright for it to be seen.

I've got too much cloud. I can't even see the sun, let alone Venus.

Way too cloudy in London to see anything.

A mate of mine sent me a lovely powerpoint slideshow with pictures of the moon from all over the world. Some brilliant pics in it. If anyone would like me to email it to them then just pm me your email addy

Transit of Venus coming up on Tuesday night.

Thanks for the heads up, Fluffy, I'll look out for it.

Why is Veggie's avi now saying "Guest"? Has she left us, as well as Gypsie?

Oooh, I hadn't been aware of that. She must have deregged for some reason, but I haven't been aware of why that might be.

Here's what my iPad is facing right now... 

I have looked more deeply into the details of this 'Transit of Venus' and it would appear that most of the action will take place AFTER sunset in the UK.

Just noticed that Yogi.  veggie's been a member  here as long as I can remember , really sorry she's gone .

yeh, we might just catch the final stages of transit as the sun rises 

Me too.

Along with Scotty and Savannah, Veggie was one of the first people to "talk" to me on CH4 forums.