Hmm, I don't know about that one, Chris.
It's intrinsically hard to argue about a subjective perception, especially with the sun/moon illusion involved....plus, as you say, the brightness issue interfering with any precise perception of size. But we do have a pretty sharp sense of the moon's apparent size, which of course is the same. And the photo you used to illustrate your point doesn't ring true for me as a representation of that size....while the drawing on the site I linked to does.
Anyway, in terms of my original point - revulsion of seeing an unfamiliarly small Sun from other planets - I don't think you can get around the fact that it
will seem disconcertingly smaller/fainter/different, at least from the outer planets. Hard point to argue. And I do imagine even a small difference would create a visceral sense of discomfort, even if one isn't staring at it, gauging it, etc. You'd simply experience a "something's wrong" sensation, above/beyond the unfamiliarity of the immediate environment. I suppose the sun is "baked in" more to our psychology to an extent that would make itself known from other viewpoints.
Chris Peterson wrote:Jim Leff wrote:
Here is solar size as seen from every planet:
http://www.astronoo.com/en/children/sun ... -size.html
I wonder if we'd feel not just surprise and marvel but also a deep revulsion at its unnaturally small size viewed from an outer planet....if the sight would offend some deep unconscious faculty, ala the "uncanny valley" revulsion.
While the image correctly represents the relative size of the Sun seen from different places, it doesn't capture the visual appearance accurately, since very few people are likely to have a visual impression of the Sun from Earth like that represented in the image. The Sun is very small, and combined with its brightness even at sunset, we don't really note its size much at all. Consider a more realistic image of a sunset, and ask yourself how much difference the size changes would really make.
And at any time other than sunset, the Sun might as well be a point source. We'd notice the quality of shadows changing more than we'd notice the Sun was a different size.