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Atmospheric refraction distorting the Sun’s disk into an uneven shape as it sets in the lower horizon. Astronomical refraction deals with the angular position of celestial bodies, their appearance as a point source, and through differential refraction, the shape of extended bodies such as the Sun and Moon.
Atmospheric distortion of the Moon's appearance at Earth's horizon. The Moon appears to be larger at moonrise or moonset due to an illusion. This illusion, known as the Moon illusion, is caused by an effect of the brain. There is no definitive explanation for the Moon illusion.
Atmospheric optics. A colorful sky is often due to indirect sunlight being scattered off air molecules and particulates, like smog, soot, and cloud droplets, as shown in this photo of a sunset during the October 2007 California wildfires. Atmospheric optics is "the study of the optical characteristics of the atmosphere or products of ...
Atmosphere of the Moon. The thin lunar atmosphere is visible on the Moon's surface at sunrise and sunset with the lunar horizon glow [1] and lunar twilight rays, like Earth's crepuscular rays. This Apollo 17 sketch depicts the glow and rays [2] among the general zodiacal light [3][4]. The atmosphere of the Moon is a very sparse layer of gases ...
The NASA astronauts who became the first people to land on the moon's surface in the 1960s and 1970s also discovered a previously unknown lunar characteristic - it has an atmosphere, though quite ...
The vertical scale of the wavefronts plotted is highly exaggerated. In astronomy, seeing is the degradation of the image of an astronomical object due to turbulence in the atmosphere of Earth that may become visible as blurring, twinkling or variable distortion. The origin of this effect is rapidly changing variations of the optical refractive ...
A harvest moon. The Moon illusion is an optical illusion which causes the Moon to appear larger near the horizon than it does higher up in the sky. It has been known since ancient times and recorded by various cultures. [1][2] The explanation of this illusion is still debated. [2][3][4]
A mock mirage of the setting Sun. A mirage of an astronomical object is a meteorological optical phenomenon, in which light rays are bent to produce distorted or multiple images of an astronomical object. The mirages might be observed for such celestial objects as the Sun, the Moon, the planets, bright stars, and very bright comets.