Flags on the Moon

[Guest liliangrn]

Hi, My boyfriend recently posed a question to me about the moon landing (He doesn't believe it, although, I do). He was wondering if anyone could see the landing sites, with their respective flags, from an observatorium. Could anyone here, has access to a telescope powerful enough to see this, could shed some light on the subject? If the landing sites cannot be seen what would be the reasons for that?

This would be really helpful, thanks.

 

Josephine

[Tormod]

We are unable to see anything on the surface of the moon because of sheer scale. The moon is some 340,000 kilometers away. Even from orbit around the moon you would have a hard time seeing the Apollo hardware.

 

The same goes for the rovers on Mars. There are actually photographs taken from orbiting spacecraft (around Mars, of course) which shows the tracks of the rovers, where the shields impacted etc. But even then you have to know what to look for, and where.

 

I usually point Apollo hoax believers to Phil Plait's excellent website, Bad Astronomy:

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

[C1ay]

If the landing sites cannot be seen what would be the reasons for that?

This would be really helpful, thanks.

 

Josephine

One of the most obvious reasons that comes to mind is the fact that we see the same side of the moon all of the time from Earth. Any landing sites on the other side of the moon would never be visible from Earth unless you could see through the moon.

[WebFeet]

One of the most obvious reasons that comes to mind is the fact that we see the same side of the moon all of the time from Earth. Any landing sites on the other side of the moon would never be visible from Earth unless you could see through the moon.

All the landing sites were selected using earth based telescopes - so there aren't any we can't see.

[C1ay]

All the landing sites were selected using earth based telescopes - so there aren't any we can't see.

Thanks Web. For some reason I thought one or two of the final visits were on the back side.

[WebFeet]

Thanks Web. For some reason I thought one or two of the final visits were on the back side.

I'm not sure about some of the subsequent probes, but sending anything to the dark side means that we'd never get any telemetry from it (line of site)

Here's a link to telescope images of each Apllo landing site

[C1ay]

I'm not sure about some of the subsequent probes, but sending anything to the dark side means that we'd never get any telemetry from it (line of site)

Here's a link to telescope images of each Apllo landing site

I found a map that show the Apollo and probe sites.

[Tormod]

With a relay satellite we could do it, but it was probably a bit early for that back during the Apollo heydays.

 

BTW, the Russians were the first to photograph the far side of the Moon in 1959.

 

lefthttp://hypography.com/gallery/files/5/First_Luna1-browse_thumb.jpg[/img]

 

(Click on the image to see the image in our gallery).

[Queso]

ah there's no man on that side. bummer. i see what looks like a snake beast, but that's something that would never turn up in songs. "yeah yeah the snake beast on the far side of the moon" :)

[WebFeet]

C1ay,Tormod,

Nice pictures.

 

Just a thought.

 

When space travel becomes a lot less expensive than it is today, what do you think the salvage on all those LM bases and probes would be worth ? I'm sure museums around the world would love to have one.

[Queso]

webfeet, thank you for bringing that up. because now my goal is to steal all that stuff and sell it and become a millionaire! MUAHAHAH!!!!

[UncleAl]

If you work out the angle subtended by the objects at distance you see that no Earth-based telescope has the resolving power to image them. The Hubble would burn out its detectors almost instantly from the brightness. Each Apollo landing left behind a corner cube optical retro-reflector array. Those are constantly pinged from all over nighttime Terra for lunar laser ranging (accurate to a centimeter) re the Nordtvedt effect,

 

http://arXiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0411113

http://www.npl.washington.edu/eotwash/pdf/prl83-3585.pdf

http://arXiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0301024

Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 261101 (2004)

[Guest liliangrn]

Strangely enough I once saw a documentary on the universe and it showed an image of the moon (probably cgi) rotating. I also heard that the moon rotates once for every orbit it completes of the earth. That is why we always see the same side of the moon from where we live. Was this false?

 

In Australia we see the image of a bunny with it's ears sticking up on the moon. Does this mean that else where on earth some other people see the same bunny?

 

Josephine

[Tormod]

The moon is gravitationally locked to the Earth so yes, it rotates once per orbit. This is not an unfamiliar phenomenon and also happens to other moons in our solar system.

 

It does however "wobble" slightly so that we can sometimes see a slightly different edge on the Moon but it's not much.

[Guest liliangrn]

Thanks Tomrod,

Doesn't this go against the idea of 'the other-side of the moon'.

You could see any side of the moon depending on where you are positioned on Earth.

 

Confused!

 

Josephine

[Turtle]

___First, Hubble can & has imaged the Moon & it is a myth that the sensors can't take it. It cannot however resolve anything as small as the equipment left behind (or flag) on the Moon.

___Second, no matter where on Earth you are you only see one side of the Moon; there is a back side, which is lighted when our side (the New Moon) is dark, and the back side is dark during our lighted side Full Moon. The slight wobble allows us to see a few percent less or more.

___Last, it never ceases to amaze me how few people have ever had this sufficiently explained. If you're still not sure, it is worth the time to spend some weeks watching the Moon and reading up on its cycles. No other planetary body, save the Sun perhaps, is so readily observable.

[Tormod]

Thanks Tomrod,

Doesn't this go against the idea of 'the other-side of the moon'.

You could see any side of the moon depending on where you are positioned on Earth.

 

You misread my post. If the Moon rotates once per orbit around the Earth, then it is tidally locked and we only ever see one side of it. Like Turtle says, this is not very difficult to understand. And as a consequence there are no places on Earth where the Moon's backside will be visible.