In article ,
Uncle Al wrote:
Hubble may *not* look at the moon. The brightness would burn out its
optical detectors.

Not so, as others have commented. Some of Hubble's instruments (notably
the now-retired Faint Object Camera) could not tolerate looking at the
Moon, but some can.

Hubble doesn't normally look at the Moon because the Moon moves too fast
for Hubble's fine-guidance system to track it. Hubble has gotten images
of the Moon occasionally, generally when the Moon was being used as a
calibration target for other instruments and the camera shot a few
pictures on general principles; the calibrations didn't need ultra-fine
pointing accuracy and the camera exposures were short.
--
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well. |