we went to the moon in 1969 , a flag was placed there can we see it with a high power telescope?

Question

i just always wondered if it is still there

Answer 1

Unfortunately, it would take an absurdly large telescope and almost perfect atmospheric conditions to see it. There's a nice explanation (although a bit technical) at the link below.

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Answer 2

In order to answer this question, we need to understand something about the resolving power of telescopes

The best telescope available today is the Hubble Space Telescope. It has a resolving power of 0.1 arc-seconds. I am open to correction on this, but as best I can tell, the Hubble telescope would have something like 15-centimeter resolving power if it were pointed at something on the Earth, like the Statue of Liberty

The moon is about 1,000 times farther away from the Hubble Space Telescope than the Earth is. That means that if you pointed the Hubble at the moon, it would have 150-meter resolution. At that resolution, a football stadium occupies just one or two pixels of the image. That means that there would be no way to discern the Lunar Excursion Module or any of the other equipment left on the moon. It is just too small to pick up, even with the world's best telescope.

So as far as the technology goes,we cannot see the flag left on the moon.
I hope this has cleared your doubt

And yes the flag might be still there as there are no forces to disturb it like wind or something unless a meteor fall on it lol

Answer 3

or maybe they don't do it on the grounds that's honestly *bodily impossible* to tutor the flag on the Moon with a telescope from right here. The Moon is 250,000 miles away, and the flag is approximately 4 ft extensive. to construct a telescope which could make that out it would choose to be numerous kilometres throughout the time of. that's a difficulty of physics, and no strengthen in technologies can get around that straightforward actuality. as that's, each and every of the sceptics can fortunately push aside plenty info that it extremely got here approximately that some new p.c.. won't make a blind little bit of distinction. although, I recommend you lookup the latest LRO photographs of the touchdown web pages. the latest Apollo 17 photograph needless to say shows the shadow solid by using the flag.

Answer 4

According to:

http://www.inconstantmoon.com/qna_obsn.htm

Q: Can the US flag left on the moon in '69 be seen through an earth-based telescope? And where is it, anyway? (Ken, Atlanta)

A: Apollo 11 landed in the Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) near its southern edge. See the Apollo Landings map in Cyclopedia Selenica.

The Hubble Space Telescope was recently trained on the Moon for the first time. It can theoretically resolve lunar features down to 85 metres (280 feet) across, which means that although it could never directly observe the lunar module's base section (much less the flag) it could possibly see its shadow near lunar sunrise or sunset. No Earth-bound telescope could match this feat.

Also check out:

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070612224237AABFL7y

for a very detailed answer.

Answer 5

It's just a bit out of reach of any telescope in existance, though I think the CHARA array at Mt. Wilson might be close to being able to see perhaps one of the the lunar landers.

But there are several retroreflectors that astronauts positioned there that lasers look at all the time. Accurately timing the length of time it takes for a laser to get there and back tells us exactly how far away the moon is, down to a fraction of an inch.

Don't worry, they're there, I watched them all, sorry you weren't around to witness that very exciting era. If anyone tells you Apollo was a hoax, give a laugh, they're suckers, and send them to www.badastronomy.com and read the facts (though most moon hoax proponents WANT to believe it was a hoax and will resist reading the facts).

Answer 6

It's too small and too far away. You're talking about seeing a feature that's not even a meter long at a distance of a quarter million miles. That translates to an angular size of under 1 milliarcsecond, which is far beyond the resolution of any current telescope.

Answer 7

There are 6 flags there, one for each landing. But no telescope in the world or in Earth orbit is big enough to see something that small 240,000 miles away, which is how far away the Moon is.

Answer 8

From what I understand a new 4 telescope array, in Chile I think, will combine all four images into one image. They claim that it will be able to see all of the landing sights down to a 1 foot scale. Some how they will remove blur from the images caused by the atmosphere.
See--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Telescope

The flag should still be there.

Answer 9

No... not from Earth, with current optics. You'd need a telescope with a mirror roughly 540-600 feet across for that kind of resolution.

And... all 6 are still there.

Answer 10

No.....u cant trace it from Earth............by any kind of telescope.......
you have to go to the moon to find that flag..........perhaps there too you'll need more than a month time to locate ... ''the flag of 1969'' ....................!!!!!