Apollo 15 Rover Tracks

[J47]

 Hi everyone, I managed somehow to pinpoint the Rover tracks from the Apollo 15 Landing with my Nexstar 4se matched up with a 2x Barlow and a Neximage Burst Color. The rover tracks are somewhat dim but figured it was the best I could get with my equipment and due to being in FL the humidity makes it hard to get clearer images, but here's what I got and how I did it(to the best of what I remember was excited to get the shot and did not take note while capturing the image of it's specific details) but I will do my best.

-Nexstar 4se, 2x Barlow and Neximage Burst Color was used in capturing the images, took 200 frames at 25fps, not sure on what exposure was but believe that I had the exposure set to 1/27fps

-iCap software was also used for the image, RegiStax was used for stacking the images, stacked 100 frames, did some detailing with the layers in wavelet feature, then came up with this as my best results.(Slightly blurry due to FL atmosphere)

[RT65CB-SWL]

Please don't take this as an insult, but no way can the lunar rover tracks can be seen with a Nextstar 4se, (or any other amatuer 'scope), from Earth.

BTW - nice image.

[kirkster501]

No telescope - including the Hubble Space telescope - can see the Lunar Rover tracks or lunar module from Earth or Earth orbit, a telescope in the order of 100m in aperture would be required.  They are far too small to resolve from that distance.  These have only relatively recently been seen again from lunar orbit by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and even then they are just pixel specs.  Think about it; if they were that easy to see then the conspiracy theories could have been dismissed straight away.

What you are looking at is the natural terrain and undulations in the lunar surface.

Well done for finding the area though and a great picture you shared with us.

Edited September 7, 2019 by kirkster501

[Mr niall]

No... you definitely haven't.

You'd need a telescope in excess of 75 metres eg 750 times bigger than your Nexstar 4 to be able to see it. I love your enthusiasm but it might be worth researching what your Nexstar 4SE is actually capable of resolving (in the same way it can't see the rings of Uranus).

Nice picture though.

 

Edited September 7, 2019 by Mr niall

[JamesF]

7 minutes ago, Philip R said:

Please don't take this as an insult, but no way can the lunar rover tracks can be seen with a Nextstar 4se, (or any other amatuer 'scope), from Earth.

BTW - nice image.

Sadly this is true.  With a 2x barlow and that combination of camera and OTA, even a single pixel covers an area of the Moon's surface of several square miles.  The tracks are just too small to see from here without a very big telescope.

James

[Cornelius Varley]

The Celestron SE4 has a resolving power of about 1.14 arc seconds, which equates to about 2km in distance on the moon. Anything smaller than 2km on the moon would not be seen by your telescope. The landing site on your photo is about one pixel big.

LRO images Apollo landing sites.

[Mr niall]

If my maths is right I think you've photographed an area about 190 miles across the diagonal from corner to corner.

[Craney]

Maybe they had some really wide tyres for all that off road 4x4 stuff.....   

[Davey-T]

No chance of imaging tracks but you should be able to get some images of the lunar landing site locations and maybe resolve the craters Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins which is quite satisfying 

Dave

PS: Don't post it on CN 

Edited September 7, 2019 by Davey-T