I couldn't pull up the 2000 issue that you referred to, but if you remember the point of it, it would be nice to know.
Easier to type it in than to summarize it:
In Brief: Moon Illlusion Explained
Lloyd Kaufman and his son James H. Kaufman, working at the IBM Almaden Research Center, have gathered concrete data to explain the ancient optical illusion that causes a full moon near the horizon to appear bigger than a moon seen overhead. By measuring viewers' perception of the distance to artificial moons projected onto the sky, the researchers showed that the "apparent distance" to the moon -- rather than the real distance -- determines its perceived size. When the moon is on the horizon, the brain picks up distance cues from the surrounding terrain and interprets the moon as being farher away. This, in turn, causes the brain to see a larger moon. (The new work opposes alternative explanations based on "apparent size.") The study appeeared in the January 4 [2000] Proceedings of the National Acdemy of Sciences. --D.M."
--Scientific American, Vol 282, No. 3 (March 2000), p.22.
(The article is signed with the initials D.M. but it's not I; after turning back a few pages in the issue I conclude that they belong to one Diane Martindale.)
