Flags on the Moon

Hi, My boyfriend recently posed a question to me about the moon landing (He doesn't believe it, although, I do). He was wondering if anyone could see the landing sites, with their respective flags, from an observatorium. Could anyone here, has access to a telescope powerful enough to see this, could shed some light on the subject? If the landing sites cannot be seen what would be the reasons for that?
This would be really helpful, thanks.

Josephine

[Tormod]

We are unable to see anything on the surface of the moon because of sheer scale. The moon is some 340,000 kilometers away. Even from orbit around the moon you would have a hard time seeing the Apollo hardware.

The same goes for the rovers on Mars. There are actually photographs taken from orbiting spacecraft (around Mars, of course) which shows the tracks of the rovers, where the shields impacted etc. But even then you have to know what to look for, and where.

I usually point Apollo hoax believers to Phil Plait's excellent website, Bad Astronomy:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by liliangrn

If the landing sites cannot be seen what would be the reasons for that?
This would be really helpful, thanks.

Josephine

One of the most obvious reasons that comes to mind is the fact that we see the same side of the moon all of the time from Earth. Any landing sites on the other side of the moon would never be visible from Earth unless you could see through the moon.

[WebFeet]

Originally Posted by C1ay

One of the most obvious reasons that comes to mind is the fact that we see the same side of the moon all of the time from Earth. Any landing sites on the other side of the moon would never be visible from Earth unless you could see through the moon.

All the landing sites were selected using earth based telescopes - so there aren't any we can't see.

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by WebFeet

All the landing sites were selected using earth based telescopes - so there aren't any we can't see.

Thanks Web. For some reason I thought one or two of the final visits were on the back side.

[WebFeet]

Originally Posted by C1ay

Thanks Web. For some reason I thought one or two of the final visits were on the back side.

I'm not sure about some of the subsequent probes, but sending anything to the dark side means that we'd never get any telemetry from it (line of site)
Here's a link to telescope images of each Apllo landing site

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by WebFeet

I'm not sure about some of the subsequent probes, but sending anything to the dark side means that we'd never get any telemetry from it (line of site)
Here's a link to telescope images of each Apllo landing site

I found a map that show the Apollo and probe sites.

[Tormod]

With a relay satellite we could do it, but it was probably a bit early for that back during the Apollo heydays.

BTW, the Russians were the first to photograph the far side of the Moon in 1959.



(Click on the image to see the image in our gallery).

[orbsycli]

ah there's no man on that side. bummer. i see what looks like a snake beast, but that's something that would never turn up in songs. "yeah yeah the snake beast on the far side of the moon"

[WebFeet]

C1ay,Tormod,
Nice pictures.

Just a thought.

When space travel becomes a lot less expensive than it is today, what do you think the salvage on all those LM bases and probes would be worth ? I'm sure museums around the world would love to have one.