Pictures of Moon's Surface.

Cee Bee Maybe seeing the motion of shadows on the white surface could
be seen by the Hubble? The best viewing time would be when the sun is
close to the moon"s horizon.(very long shadows) I use to do a lot of
shadow photography. Is it possible to see the craters on the moon in day
light? We can see the moon in day light. Bert

(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote in message ...
Cee Bee Maybe seeing the motion of shadows on the white surface could
be seen by the Hubble?

No, the Hubble Space Telescope does not have enough resolution to even
begin to do this. The best it might be able to do would be seeing
something about the size of a American-style football field. The
surface of the moon is not white and has so much irregular detail that
even a long shadow from the lander would be difficult to impossible to
detect with HST.


The best viewing time would be when the sun is
close to the moon"s horizon.(very long shadows) I use to do a lot of
shadow photography. Is it possible to see the craters on the moon in day
light? We can see the moon in day light.

Yes, it is possible, but the contrast is lower than it is when the sky
is darker.

David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
**********************************************

(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote in message ...
Cee Bee Maybe seeing the motion of shadows on the white surface could
be seen by the Hubble?

No, the Hubble Space Telescope does not have enough resolution to even
begin to do this. The best it might be able to do would be seeing
something about the size of a American-style football field. The
surface of the moon is not white and has so much irregular detail that
even a long shadow from the lander would be difficult to impossible to
detect with HST.


The best viewing time would be when the sun is
close to the moon"s horizon.(very long shadows) I use to do a lot of
shadow photography. Is it possible to see the craters on the moon in day
light? We can see the moon in day light.

Yes, it is possible, but the contrast is lower than it is when the sky
is darker.

David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
**********************************************

David I'm a little disappointed that the Hubble can't see a bus size
object on the moon. I would think this would be a good reason to have a
satellite orbiting the moon as close as possible,and with the best
viewing equipment. It should have four cameras aboard. Bert

David I'm a little disappointed that the Hubble can't see a bus size
object on the moon. I would think this would be a good reason to have a
satellite orbiting the moon as close as possible,and with the best
viewing equipment. It should have four cameras aboard. Bert

(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote in message ...
David I'm a little disappointed that the Hubble can't see a bus size
object on the moon. I would think this would be a good reason to have a
satellite orbiting the moon as close as possible,and with the best
viewing equipment. It should have four cameras aboard. Bert

Well, why should you expect that Hubble would be able to do this? It
isn't big enough and was never designed for lunar imaging. Also,
there is no extremely pressing reason to build a telescope to take
pictures of the moon. We have already mapped the moon to a very high
resolution with the Lunar Orbiter and Clementine probes, so there is
no reason to have Hubble even look at the moon (even though it has on
occasion to calibrate some of its instruments). Hubble was designed
to "go deep" and answer some of the most fundamental questions about
our Universe, not to take quick shots of something practically in our
own backyard which we have already mapped. We will undoubtedly send
more probes to the moon, and hopefully go back there in person
eventually. It would be better to point our telescopes to places
where we may never be able to go.

David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
**********************************************

(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote in message ...
David I'm a little disappointed that the Hubble can't see a bus size
object on the moon. I would think this would be a good reason to have a
satellite orbiting the moon as close as possible,and with the best
viewing equipment. It should have four cameras aboard. Bert

Well, why should you expect that Hubble would be able to do this? It
isn't big enough and was never designed for lunar imaging. Also,
there is no extremely pressing reason to build a telescope to take
pictures of the moon. We have already mapped the moon to a very high
resolution with the Lunar Orbiter and Clementine probes, so there is
no reason to have Hubble even look at the moon (even though it has on
occasion to calibrate some of its instruments). Hubble was designed
to "go deep" and answer some of the most fundamental questions about
our Universe, not to take quick shots of something practically in our
own backyard which we have already mapped. We will undoubtedly send
more probes to the moon, and hopefully go back there in person
eventually. It would be better to point our telescopes to places
where we may never be able to go.

David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
**********************************************

David I like the Hubble to view deep space,and I like the idea of
keeping a close up view of Mars surface. Why can't we have both? With
Moons less gravity,and no atmosphere how low can we put a satellite in
orbit? Could we place it 36,000 feet up? I've seen the Earth at that
height. Bert

David I like the Hubble to view deep space,and I like the idea of
keeping a close up view of Mars surface. Why can't we have both? With
Moons less gravity,and no atmosphere how low can we put a satellite in
orbit? Could we place it 36,000 feet up? I've seen the Earth at that
height. Bert

G=EMC^2 Glazier wrote:
David I like the Hubble to view deep space,and I like the idea of
keeping a close up view of Mars surface. Why can't we have both? With
Moons less gravity,and no atmosphere how low can we put a satellite in
orbit? Could we place it 36,000 feet up? I've seen the Earth at that
height. Bert

The only things that determine how low a Moon orbit can be are the tallest
mountains out there - you wouldn't want to crash into one of them! :-)

--
The butler did it.