When the space shuttle is in orbit, if you had a “decent size” home telescope, and could track it, would you be able to make out what you were looking at? IE- The wings, the actual shape of it?
Just wondering.
I’ve seen pictures taken by amature scopes of the Shuttle docking with Mir, and both were kind of fuzzy, but recognizable. I don’t know how big that scope was, though, nor how big you consider to be a “decent size”. A decent amature scope can range from 6 to 40 inches in diameter, and aperature can make a world of difference.
I have, from my days at The Nature Company stores, seen promotional photographs for Meade telescopes showing the Shuttle as seen through an LX200 (which is a 12-inch Schmidt-Cassagrain). As noted above, fuzzy, but recognizable.
In fact, here is a link to it on Meade’s site: