Can you see the flag on the Moon with a telescope?

Interestingly, one thing we DID do that's observable from earth is to put an array of retroreflectors onto the moon, so that we can bounce a laser off of it.<p><a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment" rel="nofollow">https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lunar_Laser_R...</a><p>My sample size of moon landing skeptics (1) didn't dispute that we've been to the moon, he just didn't believe that we did it in 1969, but if you do run into a skeptic this is pretty good evidence that we made it there eventually, or at least requires the conspiracy to be much more involved =).

Two things.<p>1. The 3.5 mile figure is for resolving the <i>stripes</i> on the flag, not for seeing the flag. If you just want to see the flag, an aperture diameter of around 400 m is required.<p>2. The "Dawes Limit" is just presented with no explanation. It ultimately comes from the fact that the achievable angular resolution of an aperture of size D, using light with wavelength lambda is lambda/D. So if you were willing to work at 10 nm, then the aperture size goes down by a factor of 50 (of course working at 10 nm has it's own set of problems).

Yes. If you are on the moon, you can see the flag with a telescope.

But when you get closer…: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/a...</a>

&#62; What could Hubble see on Earth if it were to be aimed at the Earth? ... &#62; it can be shown that Hubble could just make out something that is 5.56 inches wide on Earth.<p>I found that quite odd. I've always heard that spy satellites could read the headline on a newspaper. Why would the Hubble be so much worse? That makes the math in the article a little suspect.

&#62; Therefore it is <i>not even close</i> to possible to see the Flag on the Moon from Earth with telescopes available today.<p>How ... <i>convenient</i>.<p>/fusionparanoia

I would guess things have changed a little with the newest technology?<p>The correct answer might now be "not with the naked human eye" (through an optical telescope).<p>It is only recently possible to correct atmospheric distortion by having a computer project a laser through the atmosphere and measure the change in realtime and adapt for it (adaptive optics).<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laser_Towards_Milky_Ways_Centre.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laser_Towards_Milky_Ways_C...</a><p>Also, the increase in CCD densities have become enormous in the past few years. So it might be possible to make a matrix that could resolve the flag in the near future.<p>The stereo telescope method they mention at the end has also been improved recently if I remember reading correctly and they have robotic telescopes that can pull this off.<p>ps. the James Webb Telescope that's going up in 2014 will have 6 times the collection area of the Hubble, so maybe that will be able to do it ! It looks like it's right out of Star Trek:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JWST_people.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JWST_people.jpg</a>

<i>The only method that could be used to (in theory) see something as small as the Flag on the Moon would be to use two optical telescopes set (for example) 1000 miles apart. This would easily provide the required resolution, the huge problem however is combining the images from both telescopes in such a way to realize the resolution. As far as I know right now that technology is not available. Even if the technology was available, the unsteadiness of the Earth's atmosphere would likely render the method useless.</i><p>I've read about this method being used a lot in radioastronomy. But how does one proceed to use it in optical astronomy?<p>And surely if it is possible to algorithmize this it wouldn't be a problem to write a program that will take care of such "technology"?

A: No.

Slightly off topic...<p>I don't consider myself a conspiracy theorist but in my opinion the demeanor of Armstrong and crew during the Apollo 11 press conference is indicative of deception.<p>Have a look: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RcKLAo62Ro" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RcKLAo62Ro</a>