the moon

[Joel]

question,,,

when man left the landing shuttle on the moon and the moon buggy, has it ever been seen through a telescope???

[ashenlight]

I think the answer is a short 'no.' I don't think any telescope would have sufficient resolution to see the objects left there, not even Hubble.

"Can we see the flag on the Moon from Earth with a big telescope, or even Hubble? Even though we have some powerful telescopes, they’re just not powerful enough to spot objects the size of a flag on the surface of the Moon. The flag is only a meter across. In fact, you would need a telescope 200 meters across to spot objects that size from here on Earth. Future space missions will return to the Moon, and they should be able to resolve objects as small as the flags on the Moon." see this

This gives a really good detailed informative explanation.

Amanda

[Joel]

cool,

thanks i was thinking that hubble might be able to, but clearly not thinking about it

[ashenlight]

It is a very common question, particularly off anyone I show the Moon to for the first time... once you look at the numbers though, it becomes clear that it is isn't possible which is a shame, it would be fascinating to see those objects on the lunar surface.

[Joel]

yea for sure, it wouldn't surprise me that the next time man goes to the moon they will lay a huge flag of their country spanning miles, could just imagine the mcdonalds company dreaming up some advertising campain

[gobes]

I'm sure I read somewhere that recently a new Chinese lunar satellite swung around the moon to take pics, and managed to capture some stuff left over from the landings.

Not sure if that's accurate though.

[Capricorn]

gobes, Hubble is orbiting the earth and so is just under 1/4 million miles from the moon, we are on the earth much the same distance away and we have an atmosphere to peer through.

A chinese lunar satellite is orbiting the moon and will be a few hundred miles from the surface and with atmosphere to upset the imaging. It is a lot closer.

Suspect you realise this but the post reads as if why can we not see the bits when a lunar satellite can.

[JamesK]

yea for sure, it wouldn't surprise me that the next time man goes to the moon they will lay a huge flag of their country spanning miles, could just imagine the mcdonalds company dreaming up some advertising campain

Imagine the advertising fees on the Moon, however, would be very cheap on the "dark" side.

Hopefully some laws will be put in place to prevent us using the Moon as mankind's greatest billboard.

[proflight2000]

I did read a while ago that one of the NASA missions placed laser recieving equpiment on the Moons surface, this is used so that scientists on the earth can take distance measurements of the moon daily, showing it is infact moving away.

[gman]

We can't see it from here. Our first views of what got left behind should be provided by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter soon though. At the moment its due to be launched within the next month.

More here

I can't wait myself. Its camera is derived from the one on the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter. There have been some stunning images from that one.

gareth

[Kit-Fox]

So the russians made it to the moon first, they painted it red to show their superiority over the US.

Simple said NASA, we'll soon fix this, so they sent up some astronauts with a lil white paint, they painted 'coca cola' in the middle

bad joke I know, but hey someone had to say it

And I thought it was a mirror that they can bounce a beam off? Or something like that rather actual recieving equipment.

[gobes]

gobes, Hubble is orbiting the earth and so is just under 1/4 million miles from the moon, we are on the earth much the same distance away and we have an atmosphere to peer through.

A chinese lunar satellite is orbiting the moon and will be a few hundred miles from the surface and with atmosphere to upset the imaging. It is a lot closer.

Suspect you realise this but the post reads as if why can we not see the bits when a lunar satellite can.

No... sorry you misunderstood my post. I was simply stating that I'd heard that a Chinese Lunar sat had taken pics. I haven't ever, for a moment thought anything from earth would have been able to capture landing remains. That would be some serious scope ;-)