This reminds me that I am fascinated by thinking about the possibility of some unrecorded massive reality-shift or cataclysm, that caused stuff like changes to how celestial bodies interact with the earth and how humans interact with celestial bodies, at some point post-3rd Age, kind of along the same lines as the earth turning round after the Downfall of Numenor.

Is Tilion’s method of steering the moon different than it used to be? Is the Moon bigger now than it used to be? Is it composed differently than it used to be? Did something happen to destroy the last flower of Telperion so that now the Moon can only cast light by reflecting the sun? Is that why it’s so big nowadays? Is that also part of the reason why the sun had to be rebuilt to become so gigantic? Was there some kind of Earthly central heating collapse?

Or is this really not the way the issue played out, and is there a whole different issue about perceptions of and definitions of reality and the existence of things that once were simply not being present in the way they used to, that’s the thing at play here – like how the elves and some rumored human sailors could travel out of this plane of reality via the Straight Road and reach Aman even though Aman is not present or plottable on a map of the world? Important questions guys!