Can you see the flag on the moon from Earth with a telescope?

Can you see the flag on the moon from Earth with a telescope?

Yes, the flag is still on the moon, but you can’t see it using a telescope. I found some statistics on the size of lunar equipment in a Press Kit for the Apollo 16 mission. The flag is 125 cm (4 feet) long, and you would need an optical wavelength telescope around 200 meters (~650 feet) in diameter to see it.

Can you see the flag on the moon with a camera?

Robinson said the Apollo 11 flag cannot be photographed because it’s on the ground; the orbiter cameras can only capture the shadow of the flags around poles. But even if the flags are fallen or faded, they continue to loom large in the history of space exploration.

Can you see the flag planted on the moon?

Images taken by a Nasa spacecraft show that the American flags planted in the Moon’s soil by Apollo astronauts are mostly still standing. The photos from Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO) show the flags are still casting shadows – except the one planted during the Apollo 11 mission.

What does the flag on the moon look like now?

The flag is no longer standing. In fact, it’s been flat on the ground since the moment Aldrin and Neil Armstrong lifted off. As the Eagle module ignited its engines and rose, spewing exhaust around, Aldrin caught a glimpse of the flag falling from his window. The flag, made of nylon, was an off-the-shelf purchase.

What size telescope do you need to see the flag on the Moon?

around 200 meters
The flag on the moon is 125cm (4 feet) long. You would require a telescope around 200 meters in diameter to see it. The largest telescope now is the Keck Telescope in Hawaii at 10 meters in diameter. Even the Hubble Space telescope is only 2.4 meters in diameter.

Could you see a person on the Moon with a telescope?

To get less than 2-meter (6-foot)resolution when the Moon is closest, we’d need a telescope able to resolve angles as small as 0.001 arcsecond. That translates into a diameter exceeding 100 meters (4,000 inches).

Are the flags left on the Moon still there?

A review of photographs taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) indicates that flags placed during the Apollo 12, 16, and 17 missions were still standing as of 2012.

Is the American flag still on the Moon 2021?

Images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) have shown that the American flags left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts are still standing– except for the Apollo 11 mission, which Buzz Aldrin reported as being knocked over by engine exhaust as Apollo 11 lifted off.

Can you see anything left on the moon with a telescope?

Unfortunately the answer to this question is no. Not even the most powerful telescopes ever made are able to see these objects. The flag on the moon is 125cm (4 feet) long. You would require a telescope around 200 meters in diameter to see it.

Can you see footprints on the moon with a telescope?

In reality, all Earth-based telescopes have a much lower practical magnification limit around 300 times. This means that under typical seeing conditions from the surface of the Earth and using a large telescope, the footprints on the surface of the moon are something like 1,000 times too small to be seen.

Can you see items left on the Moon with a telescope?

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.

What happened to the flag that Neil Armstrong planted on the moon?

The flag was stored externally in the MESA, and was destroyed with the Lunar Module Aquarius when it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere. Because of issues the Apollo 15 crew had deploying experiments, the flag planting happened later in the mission than intended; at the end of the second EVA rather than the first.

Is Eagle still orbiting the Moon?

After the crew re-boarded Columbia, the Eagle was abandoned in lunar orbit. Although its ultimate fate remains unknown, some calculations by the physicist James Meador published in 2021 showed that Eagle could theoretically still be in lunar orbit.

How big of a telescope would you need to see the flag on the Moon?