A thought: If the HST can photograph the light of a firefly on the moon...

[Nuri]

...you'd think that some scientist with HST access would think about photographing the lunar vehicles/equipment left behind by the Apollo missions.... just to prove a point

What do you recon?

[firstlight (Tony)]

My understanding that there is still not enough resolution to image such small detail even on our close companion. Even if it could, do you think the conspiracy theorists would believe that the images were doctored?

There is no winning with empty heads

[AlexN]

indeed...

When they say that hubble could capture the light of a firefly on the moon, I think they are refering to the amount of light at that distance. As far as Im aware, that does not mean that they could image "a firefly" 380,000kms away. resoloution and sensitivity to light are definitely mutually exclusive in this respect.

[Chrissyo (Chris)]

No, the Hubble cannot resolve even the largest pieces of Apollo equipment left on the Moon - not even close.

Keep in mind that there is a difference between resolving and detecting an object. For example - we can see the stars with our naked eyes - but even the world's biggest telescopes have trouble resolving some of the closer/larger ones into disks.

As a final thought - even if Hubble COULD detect the Apollo equipment, I doubt anyone would see it as a good use of its time. And keep in mind that conspiracy theorists have been denying the mountains of evidence in favour of the moon landings for ages - they would just turn around claim that the Hubble pictures are fake too, or that the equipment was placed by unmanned means. We already have images of the Apollo's 11 and 15 landing sites taken by Clementine and Selene that show the diffuse surface disturbance due to the LMs descent/ascent - but nope, that doesn't count for the conspiracy theorists.

[TrevorW]

Its like the BiG Bang theory I overheard some lady on the train the other day saying this theory was rubbish yet she confessed to being a creationist. You cannot explain the colour red to someone that's blind no matter how hard you try. Even with all our intellegence to some, ignorance is bliss!!!

[gmbfilter (Geoff)]

The photos could be still faked, I could do it myself..almost

You cant believe photos of anything.
I keep saying that to my ex.

Would have been much cheaper.
Actually that proves it I guess.