With a strong telescope, can a person see the landing site of the apollo missions to the moon?

Question

for instance, the american flag that was planted or the "moon mobile" that was left up there

Answer 1

At the moment, no; but it is possible to roughly calculate how large a telescope would have to be to see such an item as the buggy. The ability to see small objects is called resolving power. This is independent of magnification. If a telescope is physically unable to distinguish an object from its surroundings then no matter how high the magnification the object stall cannot be seen.

The resolving ability is called the "Dawes Limit" after its discoverer. Now the limit is an empirical measurement and modern telescopes often do better than their Dawes limit would imply, but the physical principle is still the same: the larger the telescope the greater the ability to resolve small items.

R = 4.56/D where D in inches, and R in arc seconds.

So, what we need is a measure of the angular size of the objects you have in mind, and then we need to convert them to arc seconds at the distance of the moon. Stay with me, here, it is not as bad as it sounds. :)

Let's choose the moon buggy, and say that it is 10 feet across. Now then, the moon is about 240,000 miles away (more or less) with a diameter of about 2200 miles, and the moon covers half a degree (.5 degrees, or 1800 arc seconds) of sky when full. So, we just solve (converting miles to feet)

1800.......................x
--------------- = ------------
11572000............10

x = .006 (rounded). So now back to Dawes Limit where R = .006

.006 = 4.56/D or

D = 4.56/.006

D = 760" or about 63.3 feet.

So, when someone builds a telescope with a mirror 63.3 feet across, we'll be all set to see the buggy.

HTH

Charles

Answer 2

With certain laser devices, you could prove that the Apollo astronauts were on the moon by shooting a laser beam at the retro-prism array that was left there to accurately measure the distance from the earth to the moon. The beam would be reflected back to its exact origin. It would take a couple of seconds to return.

Answer 3

No. The largest and most powerful telescopes in the world, including the Hubble Space Telescope, cannot show things that small at a distance of 240,000 miles.

Answer 4

No... You'd need to be able to resolve an area on the moon, 238,000 miles away, of about 20 feet across (the LM's landing pads are about that distance apart.)

For that to happen, you'd need a mirror about the diameter of a football field (I think the math works out to about 290 feet in diameter), and you'd need to be able to put that telescope someplace where the atmosphere wouldn't affect the incoming light.

Answer 5

i've got been thinking with regards to a similar factor. I even sent a letter to the UN making that request. have not heard lower back, nevertheless. ultimately, there will be travelers on the moon, and that i think of that no less than, they might desire to place a velvet rope around the extremely some sites. it could be against the regulation against humanity if the websites have been trampled throughout, and products torn off of the landers and whatnot.

Answer 6

Not yet, but this scope will do it eventually once they drop in orbit
Some people say we never did because they believe an idea pushed by the flat earth society saying it was a hoax. The society did this to disproved the photo's of a round earth.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050304_moon_snoop.html

Answer 7

No but there is a mirror that is there so a laser site can get very accurate ranging data on it. To an accuracy of about 10 cm.

Answer 8

Yes, it is possible, but there are no telescopes currently "strong" enough to do it -- that includes Hubble.

.

Answer 9

you don't actually believe we landed on the moon, do you?