New Scientist SPACE - Hubble scans for Moon base locations

Planetary scientists are using the Hubble Space Telescope to scout out sites
for potential human bases on the Moon.

Previous missions have observed the Moon at a range of wavelengths. But none
have boasted Hubble's sharp resolution at ultraviolet wavelengths - it can
identify spectral features just 50 metres across over swathes of lunar
terrain.

Much more at
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7880

"Nick" wrote in message
...
Planetary scientists are using the Hubble Space Telescope to scout out
sites
for potential human bases on the Moon.

Previous missions have observed the Moon at a range of wavelengths. But
none
have boasted Hubble's sharp resolution at ultraviolet wavelengths - it can
identify spectral features just 50 metres across over swathes of lunar
terrain.

Much more at
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7880

I always thought that objects like the moon were far too bright for hubble
????

In message , Mark J
Underwood writes

"Nick" wrote in message
.. .
Planetary scientists are using the Hubble Space Telescope to scout out
sites
for potential human bases on the Moon.

Previous missions have observed the Moon at a range of wavelengths. But
none
have boasted Hubble's sharp resolution at ultraviolet wavelengths - it can
identify spectral features just 50 metres across over swathes of lunar
terrain.

Much more at
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7880

I always thought that objects like the moon were far too bright for hubble
????


It's a myth - be interesting to know how it started.
Hubble imaged Copernicus some years ago
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1999/14/
Apparently tracking the Moon is tricky, though.
It's imaged Venus, which has a _much_ higher surface brightness.
And I've read it uses the Earth to produce a flat field, which again is
much brighter and fills the whole field.
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"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote:

In message , Mark J
Underwood writes

I always thought that objects like the moon were far too bright for hubble
????


It's a myth - be interesting to know how it started.

I think it dates back to Hubble's early days, when instruments such
as ESA's Faint Object Camera had very strict brightness limits, and
would certainly have been destroyed by observing the Moon. Newer
fangled solid state imaging sensors such as CCDs have no such
safety limits, and in fact Hubble used to "observe" the Sun in order to
flood WF/PC-1 with UV to mitigate its QE hysteresis problem.