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Hey everyone,
I was looking at the moon through my telescope the other night & I had an idea. Even though the Apollo 11 LM descent stage is obviously not going to be a viable target for a telescope, just how close could an Earth based observer get to pinpointing the actual landing site in a telescope?
The reason I wonder this is because every depiction of the Apollo 11 landing Ive seen seems to include a fair sized crater (2-3 km across maybe?) that Armstrong & Aldrin flew over before landing, not wanting to risk setting down in its floor. I recall it very distinctly being shown in From the Earth to the Moon, in Andrew Chaikens book about Apollo, and it also seems to make an appearance in this addon
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5205"]http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5205[/ame]
(Look at the bottom right of the screenshot to see what I mean)
Ive wondered whether that crater would be big enough to pick out from Earth, 2-3 km being quite small by lunar crater standards, but not impossible (I think).
So, what do you think?
I was looking at the moon through my telescope the other night & I had an idea. Even though the Apollo 11 LM descent stage is obviously not going to be a viable target for a telescope, just how close could an Earth based observer get to pinpointing the actual landing site in a telescope?
The reason I wonder this is because every depiction of the Apollo 11 landing Ive seen seems to include a fair sized crater (2-3 km across maybe?) that Armstrong & Aldrin flew over before landing, not wanting to risk setting down in its floor. I recall it very distinctly being shown in From the Earth to the Moon, in Andrew Chaikens book about Apollo, and it also seems to make an appearance in this addon
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5205"]http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5205[/ame]
(Look at the bottom right of the screenshot to see what I mean)
Ive wondered whether that crater would be big enough to pick out from Earth, 2-3 km being quite small by lunar crater standards, but not impossible (I think).
So, what do you think?