[QUOTE=Triskadecamus]
How well do you suppose you would do calling heads or tails for a quarter on the Washington Monument, if you were looking from Miami?
Tris
[/QUOTE]
I bet I could hit about 50%… 
[QUOTE=Astroboy14]
I bet I could hit about 50%…
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
Really?
[/QUOTE]
:smack:
That’ll teach me to skim while I’m doing other things… or not.
[QUOTE=Colophon]
Nitpick: 2,500 times as far.
[/QUOTE]
Hey, there are 52,800 ft in a mile, right?
:smack:
Tris
[QUOTE=commasense]
Ooh, ooh! I’ll give you $54 for the Apollo 17 flag! Pleeeeeeeease!
[/QUOTE]
So thats what happend to them. I thought the metal munching moon mice got to them!
Oh, and it turns out you only have to try to look at that quarter from Richmond, not Miami.
Tris
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus]
Oh, and it turns out you only have to try to look at that quarter from Richmond, not Miami.
Tris
[/QUOTE]
<LOL> The odds just improved! 51% now…
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus]
Oh, and it turns out you only have to try to look at that quarter from Richmond, not Miami.
[/QUOTE]
holds up a quarter
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
holds up a quarter
[/QUOTE]
Tails!
[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Many celestial sights are actually larger than you’d expect, sometimes a lot larger. They’re just really dim. For illustration, check out this remarkable image comparing the true size of the Andromeda Galaxy with our Moon, in terms of the amount of sky they take up as viewed from Earth. I don’t know about you, but I found it quite an eye-opener.
[/QUOTE]
Look out! It’s coming right for us!! :eek:
[QUOTE=cmyk]
Look out! It’s coming right for us!! :eek:
[/QUOTE]
Not only that, it’s like a second moon in the sky!!!
[QUOTE=Chronos]
I have a telescope which could see the flag on the moon.
You’d just have to get the telescope to the Moon, too, first. Preferably within a mile or so of the landing site.
[/QUOTE]
Not if it was a very large flag.
[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Many celestial sights are actually larger than you’d expect, sometimes a lot larger. They’re just really dim. For illustration, check out this remarkable image comparing the true size of the Andromeda Galaxy with our Moon, in terms of the amount of sky they take up as viewed from Earth. I don’t know about you, but I found it quite an eye-opener.
[/QUOTE]
Really? Wow. Really!??!
So, if Andromeda were just brighter, that’s how big it would appear in our sky? I had no idea. That is quite possibly the coolest thing ever.
I always assumed that every galaxy would appear only as big as a star.
Is there anything else I don’t know? Any other “much bigger than you thought when viewed from earth” objects out there?
Here’s the article I’d been thinking about, with respect to lunar orbits.
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
Here’s the article I’d been thinking about, with respect to lunar orbits.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for going to the trouble of looking that up.
[QUOTE=SiouxChief]
Is there anything else I don’t know? Any other “much bigger than you thought when viewed from earth” objects out there?
[/QUOTE]
Yes - the Great Wall oif China is so big it can be seen from anywhere on Earth.
[QUOTE=SiouxChief]
Really? Wow. Really!??!
So, if Andromeda were just brighter, that’s how big it would appear in our sky? I had no idea. That is quite possibly the coolest thing ever.
I always assumed that every galaxy would appear only as big as a star.
Is there anything else I don’t know? Any other “much bigger than you thought when viewed from earth” objects out there?
[/QUOTE]
You can see it with your naked eye, though it appears as a smudge of light.
Another way to picture the “seeing the flag” problem is like this; look at the pictures of the Earth taken from the Moon or from Lunar orbit; here’s a good picture.
Now, imagine what kind of telescope you’d need in order to be able to make out a house at that distance, let alone a flag.
[QUOTE=Grey]
Space is big.
[/QUOTE]
I keep telling my daughter; she still can’t parallel park. 
[QUOTE=vetbridge]
I keep telling my daughter; she still can’t parallel park.
[/QUOTE]
I couldn’t find the cartoon on the web, but Sidney Harris had a little ditty:
Space is big.
Space is dark.
It’s hard to find
a place to park.
Burma Shave.
I’ll scan it if I can find it.