If the Moon were at the same distance as the ISS I just came across this video on YouTube. Some people were disturbed by it, some found it beautiful, and others weren't sure what to think. Would you please take a look and tell me what you think? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBDZtt0vWD8

Just before I take a peek, there are no spiders involved, right? Just to be sure...

And no spiders involved.

I'd be in the "I'm not sure what to think" group. I certainly don't find it disturbing - more curious. I actually found myself wondering why? Why do I want to see what the moon would look like if it were much closer? Then I started wondering what effect it would have on the Earth and it's inhabitants. Surely it would effect more than just the view - tides for one thing. I actually started imagining it in terms of some dastardly Galactor plot to move the moon and destroy the Earth!

it would probably work too....

Originally posted by Katblu42 Then I started wondering what effect it would have on the Earth and it's inhabitants. Surely it would effect more than just the view - tides for one thing. I actually started imagining it in terms of some dastardly Galactor plot to move the moon and destroy the Earth!

Go for it! I'd love to see what you come up with.

I watched and immediately came up with more questions. If the Moon were orbiting the Earth at the same distance as the ISS, then I picture two main scenarios. The first one is that the Moon had just settled in naturally instead of where it is now, we'd all be like, "Meh, that's the Moon," right? Always been there. There would be lots more songs about the Moon, and Moon worship would have formed a significant part of our history. For Australians, Mister Squiggle* would probably have been a major deity. Or possibly blasphemy. You choose. The Earth would be a far more oblate spheroid than it is today. Tidal energy would be huge. Surfing could potentially be a super-mega-extreme sport. There would be less inhabitable land. Religious objections aside, we would probably have visited the Moon more often and the big corporations would have been mining it for decades by now. "Lunacy" would be even more of a thing than it is now. The medical establishment maintains that people are no crazier at full Moon than they are at any other time. My experience working in the hospital system, albeit empirical and purely observational, leads me to believe otherwise. The second scenario is if the Moon just suddenly got there. If we just woke up one morning and the Moon was there instead of where it used to be, a lot of us wouldn't have woken up that morning. It would be like a worldwide tsunami disaster. You could say goodbye to most islands, large swathes of Europe and many of the world's major cities. Australia would suddenly be largely uninhabited. You could say goodbye to most of Great Britain, all of Florida (including Hostile Florida from the BotP ep 'Ace From Outer Space') and a lot of the coastlines of every continent on Earth. There would still be cockroaches and politicians, though. We'd probably end up back in the Iron Age for quite some time. On the bright side, the massive tidal surge caused by the sudden appearance of the Moon in the near neighbourhood would probably topple Center Neptune and we could wave bye-bye to 7-Zark-7. Every cloud has a silver lining, amiright? * A children's television show that used to be on just before BotP involving the eponymous marionette -- Mister Squiggle, The Man From The Moon -- who had a pencil for a nose and who used his pencilnose to complete drawings from "squiggles" sent in by young viewers. It was cute, taught kids to see shapes and patterns in things and encouraged creativity in the young.

This is my third attempt to respond to this thread, so I hope this one shows up. Don't know what's going on. I responded to a few others and they didn't show up either, so I'm just going to add this one and see if its there before I type anymore.

Yeah, it finally worked! That does look freaky and if it happened suddenly, I could see mass hysteria occurring. It reminds me a lot of some sci fi book covers over at selfpubbookcovers, where I get my book covers. I don't care for those with gigantic moons. Remember Space:1999? We've got the two extremes - moon gets too close and moon moves too far away. Hopefully neither will ever happen.

Originally posted by Becky Rock Remember Space:1999? We've got the two extremes - moon gets too close and moon moves too far away. Hopefully neither will ever happen.

Well....the moon is moving away at a rate of almost an inch a year, so we'll be long gone before the moon's far enough away for any of us to notice!

Is that what's causing climate change? Seriously.

Becky: For the most part, the climate change that's the cause for worry is caused by human activity -- a couple hundred years of pumping greenhouse gases and destroying forests have caused the average global temperature to go up a couple of degrees. The moon, on the other hand, has been slowly moving away since it was first formed. So, no, the moon isn't causing the climate change. (BTW, a couple of days ago I saw a video from a scientist who sat down and figured out how many nuclear bombs it would take to knock the moon out of orbit Space:1999 style. According to his figures, it would take almost 6x the total number of nuclear warheads thatexist on earth today to do the trick.)