Q. I want to see man-made equipment left behind on the moon.

No earthbased telescope is able to resolve the Apollo artifacts, not even
the Hubble Space Telescope.


"Jim Jones" wrote in message
...
Hi.

Is there a commercial telescope powerful enough. so I can see a flag
or two left on the moon, by the previous Apollo missions ? Maybe even
a lunar rover ?

Have any of you actually been able to see those things through an
optical telescope?

Is "Tang" really the breakfast of Astronauts?

Thanks,
Jim

Jim Jones wrote in message . ..
Hi.

Is there a commercial telescope powerful enough. so I can see a flag
or two left on the moon, by the previous Apollo missions ? Maybe even
a lunar rover ?

We have pictures of the lunar modules on the surface of the moon,
taken from the command module while in orbit around the moon.
Telescopes a quarter of a million miles away from the moon can't
resolve objects only a few meters across on the moon -- the Hubble is
about two orders of magnitude away from being able to do that.

Have any of you actually been able to see those things through an
optical telescope?

Again, no. Several orders of magnitude too weak.

However, we do regularly bounce lasers off mirrors left on the moon by
the astronauts -- so we are seeing light reflected from artifacts left
behind by the lunar landings.