Comment by Sharlin
1 day ago
The sky is spherical, so straight lines in the sky aren’t straight lines on its 2D projection on the retina. Rather, straight lines are great circles. So if you trace the great circle that connects the sun and the moon, the moon should "point" along that great circle – which can be considerably off of what we think of as a straight line (which is curved in reality).
Well sure. Yeah. Do you find this explanation clear and satisfying though? Can you use it to answer a question like "at sunset, during a half-moon, can you see an upward-facing moon"? Maybe you're much smarter than me, but I had to write the simulator to figure out the answer. Claude and gemini never wrote the simulator, so they consistently answer that question incorrectly :)
No, you will not see an "upward facing" moon. At sunset, the west side of a half the moon will be illuminated. I think you are getting your self tangled with terms like "upward" and "downward" and "facing"
Makes perfect sense to me. When starting the shortest path for a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo, you don't point the plane toward Japan, you point it towards Alaska.
Well, you also point it at Japan.
Indeed, ideally you'd point it at the only path that is pointing straight towards Japan. No other path actually points towards Japan (except the one going in the opposite direction, but that's longer).