Thread: Why does the moon's terminator not appear orthogonal to the direction of the sun?
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Old 08-March-2006, 01:06 PM
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NEOWatcher NEOWatcher is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Root
Here is a pair of diagrams I made to show the geometry:

http://www.freemars.org/jeff2/SunMoon.png
I've always wanted to illustrate that so I can visualize the effect. Thanks, that's a great diagram.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Thompson
When you say orthogonal are you projecting the line between the Moon and Sun as a straight line? If so that may be the source of youir confusion.
Again, good representation, but I had a hard time at first figuring it out. I'm not sure how I would make it clearer.

Maybe some combo of the two. I see the perception of distance and the location relative to the horizon as two seperate factors here.
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