Photos of lunar landing sites from earth?

[James_Oak]

Hey Astronomy Gurus,

Yesterday at a family get-together, one of my cousins said he thought the Apollo landings were staged, which frankly made me laugh. But, being an inquiring mind and not wanting to dismiss the whole thing without at least some research, I started browsing around the web today.

Apparently this is a much bigger deal than I initially thought, but I still believe we landed on the moon after looking at a variety of information sources, including some links from posts on this board.

Now, I was wondering if there are photos of the Apollo landing sites that have been taken from earth. It seems to me that would be another useful bullet in the fight against unfounded conspiracy theories. Does anyone know of somewhere I could find these kinds of photos? I haven't had any luck so far.

I would think that it would be possible with today's telescope technology to view and photograph objects like the landing platforms, lunar rover, and maybe even one of the knocked-over flags.

Thanks,

James

[Johnno]

I would think that it would be possible with today's telescope technology to view and photograph objects like the landing platforms, lunar rover, and maybe even one of the knocked-over flags.

Nope, not possible.

[Hamlet]

Hey Astronomy Gurus,

Yesterday at a family get-together, one of my cousins said he thought the Apollo landings were staged, which frankly made me laugh. But, being an inquiring mind and not wanting to dismiss the whole thing without at least some research, I started browsing around the web today.

Apparently this is a much bigger deal than I initially thought, but I still believe we landed on the moon after looking at a variety of information sources, including some links from posts on this board.

Now, I was wondering if there are photos of the Apollo landing sites that have been taken from earth. It seems to me that would be another useful bullet in the fight against unfounded conspiracy theories. Does anyone know of somewhere I could find these kinds of photos? I haven't had any luck so far.

I would think that it would be possible with today's telescope technology to view and photograph objects like the landing platforms, lunar rover, and maybe even one of the knocked-over flags.

Thanks,

James

Hi James,

Welcome to the BABB! The short answer to your question is that we can't currently resolve anything as small as a lunar lander from the Earth. There is a possiblity that the Very Large Telescope (VLT) may have the resolution, but I don't think it has been tried.

Here is a thread about this topic from a while back.

Aside from our host's Bad Astronomy website, you should have a look at JayUtah's Clavius site.

Sorry to hear that you cousin is so misinformed, but with a little investigation you should be able to set him straight.

Good Luck!

[Ut]

No telescopes exist with the resolution to photograph any equipment left on the moon directly. However, there are mirrors that have been left there, which are being used to this day to measure the distance to the moon using lasers. Both of these things are discussed again and again throughout this forum. Have a peek around to find 'em.

However, most of the people who really believe in the Moon Hoax wouldn't be convinced with anything less than their own trip to the Moon, and even then they'd probably choose not to believe it. Photos right now are really "photoshop". A trip to the Moon could be simulated at an iMax, I'm "sure". Walking on the Moon would actually be a vacuum chamber under water (because that makes "sense").

Really, the only hope for your friend is for him to be logical about it, and to view both sides. Most average Joe's only hear the one side, because most people feel rediculous putting out "We really DID go to the Moon!" books and videos.

[James_Oak]

Thanks for the info! Sorry, should've done a search before posting. Anyhow, really interesting stuff here. The link to the ALSJ is gold...always wanted to go into space, did Space Camp and built rockets when I was younger...unfortunately (for NASA), I grew to be 6' 10". Missed the cut-off for Air Force pilot and ultimately astronaut. Anyhow, thanks again, great information!

Peace,

James

[jrkeller]

James,

Welcome on board.

You might also like Kipp Teague's site. Lot of high resolution stuff.

http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_archive.html

then go to the image gallery.

[Kiwi]

James: This site
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~durda/A...ing_sites.html
is worth a look. It shows you telescopic views of the moon and lunar orbit views right in to the landing sites, giving a good idea of scale. In the Apollo 17 series you can see a tiny bump on the surface which is the lunar module.

There's also a photo of the light soil produced by the Apollo 15 lunar module at Hadley Rille -- one-fifth of the way down from the top and just right of centre.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.pan9814.jpg

[SiriMurthy]

IMO, nothing convinces a HB that we really went to the Moon. Even if you have a telescope on earth big enough to resolve the flag, lunar rover and such items we left behind on the moon, they are very likely to say that these items could have been left there by unmanned missions. See, according to them we CANNOT pass through the Van Allen Belts without receiving lethal doses of radiation.
:x

[Johnno]

And if you get a telescope powerful enough to show footprints they'll claim those were robots with moon boots. I know the drill. Soon they'll be claiming they transferred the astronauts' personalities into robots and sent em to the moon and back, otherwise how can you explain that the missions were tracked in realtime?