Strange phenomenon I've noticed

[G'th]

Welp, while stargazing (or more accurately Mungazing) whilst landed at Kerbin, I started to look at the Mun. I've always liked to look at the various body rises and sets, and seeing the Mun rise and set was no different.

Well, as I watched the Mun go across the sky, I noticed something rather strange, even when I wasn't zoomed in. You see, I can quite easily make out the Mun moving in the sky, bit by bit (which relatively speaking is probably closer to km by km). This of course didn't phase me at first as I just figured I was at some low time warp. But alas, I was playing in real time, and the Mun was still moving across the sky at such a speed that the movement was quite visible.

I would imagine this is simply a matter of how the simulation works in tandem with the lower scale of the Kerbalverse. However, it still seems strange. Is the orbital velocity of the Mun properly scaled down from a realistic one? IIRC, the Kerbin/Mun system is supposed to be more or less a scaled down version of the Earth and the Moon. If so, then shouldn't the Mun be moving much, much slower across the sky?

[MaverickSawyer]

Have you ever looked at the moon (real one, not KSP ) through a telescope? You'll notice it moving relative to your telescope even when you're on a motorized mount that takes the Earth's rotation into account and slowly slews the telescope to provide a clean image.

[Apollo1391]

Well it moves faster because it's at a shorter distance and contributes to kerbals having a 6 hour day

Edited January 25, 2014 by Apollo1391
Ninja'd

[Tex_NL]

Have you ever looked at the moon (real one, not KSP ) through a telescope? You'll notice it moving relative to your telescope even when you're on a motorized mount that takes the Earth's rotation into account and slowly slews the telescope to provide a clean image.

You don't need a telescope to notice the moons movement. You can see this with the naked eye too as long as you have some point of reference. Trees, buildings, elevated terrain. Any stationary object will do.

[MaverickSawyer]

Well... that's the rotation of the Earth. G'th was seeing the Mun moving relative to the stars behind it. BIG difference there.

[Vanamonde]

Earth's moon crosses the length of its own diameter in about 8 minutes. Of course, that's a visual thing almost entirely due to earth's rotation rather than Moon's motion against the background sky, but it is quite noticeable if you're patient.

[Tw1]

I saw this a few days ago. The Moon was moving over the stands at my city's cricket ground, and you could easily see its progress.