moon landing?

Question

ive always wondered ,

With a telescope, can you see the flag that was planted there by astronauts?

Answer 1

No, you can't see the flag, sorry :(

You have to remember, if you're looking straight down at the flag (the only viewpoint available from Earth based telescopes) you'll only be looking at something a couple of square inches wide. No telescope has the resolving power to see that from 240,000 miles away.

We might be able to see the Lunar Lander...but we'd need the VLT (Very Large Telescope) ... it would be at the limit of resolution.... The Lunar Lander is about 15 feet across. Check this link: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/24/1037697982142.html
They almost used the VLT to verify it but didn't after criticism about wasting money catering to the lunatic fringe :)

If you're wondering about whether or not we actually landed on the Moon... check the links below.

I continue to be amazed at some people who don't believe we landed on the Moon... (I'm not saying the person who posed the question is in that category... I'm just venting :))

If you're interested in seeing the different locations the Apollo Missions visited, check out this link:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/NASALunarChart.jpg

Mission sites are listed in small red lettering on the bottom half of the image (4 meg JPG)

The Apollo Lunar surface journal... more info:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html

Answer 2

No current optical telescope has the magnification and resolution to be able to see any of the objects we left on the moon.

The best telescope we currently have, the Hubble Space Telescope, has an angular resolution of 0.01 arc-seconds. At the distance to the moon (~¼ million miles), this means that a single pixel in the HST cameras covers a spot about 10 meters in diameter. Since you need several pixels to be able to resolve an image, that means that, effectively, the Hubble can't "see" anything smaller than a football stadium.

Now, the largest piece of debris we left behind was the bottom portion of the LEM, which was about 5 meters across. So it covers less than one pixel. And the American flags are MUCH, MUCH smaller than that.

However, we can still "see" the corner-reflector mirror unit left behind on the moon, using a laser beam. This unit has been used by scientists for nearly 40 years to very precisely measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Answer 3

No. Unfortunately there is currently no telescope that can be used to view any of the lunar landing sites. Note even the Hubble telescope could make out details that small. Even lunar orbiters cannot make out that kind of detail. This is one reason why moon landing hoaxes persist. They persist because there simply IS NO EVIDENCE THAT MAN (not robots) LANDED ON THE MOON!

Here's a good article for reading up on the subject: www.tipsoftheweekonline.com/moonhoax.html. The article isn't about some crackpot theory on how we never landed on the moon. It's a serious explanation of how we have no hard evidence of a landing.

Answer 4

I don't think that there is a telescope that good on Earth.

Answer 5

possibly if you had a better earth version of the Hubble but its not present at the moment so I guess no.

Answer 6

No, but the mirror laser reflector is still there...

Answer 7

If you had a really, really good telescope and where at a high elevation.

Answer 8

I doubt a normal one that you would purchase at your local mall would do it but with one at a university you may be able to.

Answer 9

i don't think so...
i still believe that all that moon landing thing is a hoax.

Answer 10

i think we can