Every full moon in December it rises in the dark at my latitude. Typically I am looking at it rise as I drive home from work. It always looks abnormally large at and right above horizon. I used to try to stop and take photos. It was always a fail. Then I learned later about "the moon effect" as it is called. It is not an optical illusion like a mirage because you can take photos of those. It is a brain trick illusion, and pretty common among humans. There are many other documented tricks the brain does where it doesn't interpret the information eyes give it the right way.@blackstar It is difficult to explain what it looked like from my perspective. It was at least 15 years ago, so I don't think I could even come up with a comparison based on my memory. It was only partially above horizon and big enough to confuse me. Maybe if I go to a good spot with an unobstructed view, it would look the same as I remembered. I rarely have an unobstructed view of the moon rising.
I didn't have a camera, but doesn't the moon just look normal if you take an image because it is a brain thing that makes it look huge. Seems like I read that somewhere.