I've never seen the man in the moon

[askold]

So, just where is this man in the moon?<br /><br />I was talking to a friend the other day (an artist type) and she said that the man in the moon looks different to her at different times. Sometimes it even looks feminine.<br /><br />I nodded in agreement not wanting to seem as if I have no imagination.<br /><br />Where did this man in the moon thing originate?

 

[derekmcd]

I've never seen it either. Never really bothered to look.<br /><br />Anyway... Man in the Moon photos.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>

 

[qso1]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060209_man_moon.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

It's a phenomenon called pareidolia -- human brains are wired to detect patterns, and sometimes we notice patterns that aren't actually there. We are particularly good at recognizing faces -- we have to be, in order to recognize our parents as our parents. This means we have a natural predisposition to perceive faces in random shapes.<br /><br />We're good at recognizing other patterns too. Our capacity for doing so is extraordinary, so much so that no computer has ever come close. You can look at a picture of a tiger hiding in deep grass and quickly detect the tiger, even deducing the shape of its body despite its effective camoflage. Yet a computer has a hard time detecting the shape of a tiger standing in the open against a relatively featureless background, and takes a very long time to even make its flawed assessment of the tiger's presence. It's an extraordinarily powerful gift we have, but it does have a flip side; we tend to see things that aren't really there.<br /><br />I've never seen the man in the moon either. To me, the Moon looks more like a radiation symbol, which I suppose is kind of unfortunate, but that's just what the pattern of maria reminds me of. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[tom_hobbes]

I heard that in China it's traditionally thought of as a hare or a rabbit in a rice bowl, since you see it 'upside down' in the southern hemisphere. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[bdewoody]

Last time I checked most if not all of China is in the northern hemisphere. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

pareidlia.Pareidolia (pronounced /p&#603;&#633;a&#618;&#712;doli&#601;/ or /pæra&#618;&#712;d&#601;&#650;li&#601;/), first used in 1994 by Steven Goldstein[1], describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being mistakenly perceived as recognizable. Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, seeing the man in the moon, and hearing messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para- – amiss, faulty, wrong – and eidolon – image, the diminutive of eidos – appearance, form.<br /><br /> This alarm clock appears to have a sad face.Human beings are apparently "hard-wired" to identify the human face. One possible explanation for this is that unresponsive infants tended to be ignored or abandoned, as Carl Sagan speculated in The Demon-Haunted World.<br /><br />Skeptics assert that sightings of religious or iconic figures in everyday objects, such as Marian apparitions, are examples of pareidolia, as are electronic voice phenomena. The Face on Mars is a phenomenon that succeeded the Martian canals, both eventually attributed to pareidolia, when the "seen" images disappeared in better and more numerous images. Many Canadians thought they saw the face of the Devil in the Queen's hair on a dollar bill in the 1954 series, adapted from a photograph. The bills were not withdrawn from circulation, but the image was altered in its next printing.<br /><br />

 

[3488]

The whole of China is in the Northern Hemisphere. <br /><br />My Wife lives in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province @ just over 21 degrees north, & this is about as far southin mainland China, one can go before getting their feet wet.<br /><br />The large island of Hainan is to the south in the South China Sea, but even the southern extremities of Hainan cannot be further south than 19 degrees north IMO (without looking at a map).<br /><br />I cannot say that I have really noticed the Man in the Moon before. The marial regions are obvious enough though.<br /><br />Alokmohan raises a good point. I know that if I look at a carpet or at curtains or textured wallpaper, I can see faces. But then I do not go out & claim that I have seen things that are not there (like the face on Mars or seeing a face on a slice of cheese on toast, for goodness sake & then sell it on to The Weekly World News & other such nonsense).<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[pioneer0333]

I've actually never seen it either. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[SpeedFreek]

This link is quite interesting. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Maybe you should tell us why before we click on it?<br />I will of course anyway, but a few words about the subject is a fair request, No? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

And it was an interesting link! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[SpeedFreek]

Oops, sorry! I was being a little lazy there! I will be more informative next time <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[askold]

I can see patterns in things like clouds and landspaces.<br /><br />But the moon just looks like blotches. I took a close look the other day when we had a full moon.<br /><br />But then, I've never seen the Pope in the pizza, either ....

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>I heard that in China it's traditionally thought of as a hare or a rabbit in a rice bowl, since you see it 'upside down' in the southern hemisphere.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Actually, people see the Moon from a variety of perspectives over the course of just a single night. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> The mind will interpret the "bottom" as being whichever bit is closest to the ground. If you think about it, that means that first the "left" side will seem to be the bottom, then the "bottom", then the "right" side. What's more, the inclination of its orbit relative to the Earth's equator means that a pretty sizeable portion of the Earth's population will see it in both the north and south halves of the sky, at some point. What that in turn means is that you can see the moon such that what used to be its top can later be its bottom!<br /><br />It's all about perspective, really. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[tom_hobbes]

To those above, I'd thought much of southern China was in the southern hemisphere, I can see it's not, but all of it is far to the south of where I am and so to your point Calli, I suppose it's more likely to appear partially inverted for longer. Makes sense.<br /><br />As I said, the Rabbit thing was just something I'd heard. I had and still have no idea whether it's true or not. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Actually, the northernmost parts of Manchuria are at the same latitude as southern England! A lot of people don't realize how far north China stretches. What makes it tricky is the fact that it's such a big country. It spans more lines of latitude than the continental US. Its southernmost extent is in roughly the same area (latitude-wise) as Egypt. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Pareidolia.It is problem for both hemispheres then.There are more man in the moon that you and I can imagine 3488.

 

[erioladastra]

<br />Ironically, I nevr saw the man in the moon until one time I was in Australia and BAM - there was clearly an upside face! Now back in the north I have no problem seeing it. Perspective can be funny sometimes! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[alokmohan]

Man on mars in cydonea