Realistic alien skies on screen

Is there some astronomical / physics reason why it would (or would not) be realistic to have more than one "larger-than-Earth-moon" object in an alien sky as backdrop to a movie or tv show?

In other words, the view of Earth from our moon is quite impressive (takes up around 6 degrees of sky compared to how much the moon takes up in Earth's sky (0.5 degrees).

Often, to emphasize "you're now on an ALIEN planet," the sci fi writers will place multiple (usually 3) moons/planets in the sky. And they are usually shown larger than what the Moon would look like from Earth (so, larger than 0.5 degrees.)

Would this be realistic in the real world? In other words, in our solar system, Mars and Venus are so far away from us that they appear tiny, as stars.

However, if the Earth was a moon of Jupiter, then presumably, Jupiter would look huge in our sky, and if we also retained our moon, the Moon would look "moon-sized" in our sky, thereby having at least two large objects in our sky.

Or would an object the size/density of Earth not be able to both be a moon of a gas giant, while simultaneously having a large moon such as Luna?

posted over 6 years ago

Jerome Wiley Segovia‭

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