# Watching the Apollo 11 moon landing through a telescope? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 3, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118 "2019-08-03T16:21:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118/1 "2019-08-03T16:21:39Z")
In a conversation on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing I spoke to someone who stated that as a child he had watched the event through a telescope at home. And I’ve just read an article stating that Pope Paul VI also watched it through the, assumedly rather more impressive, telescope at the Vatican Observatory. I asked the person online what he saw and he stated ‘glints and flashes’, barring use of a medium, which is banned under Catholic doctrine anyway, I can’t ask Pope Paul VI what he saw. My question is, what could someone have seen through a telescope? Obviously they couldn’t see the astronauts themselves, and probably not the lander, so what did they see? As an aside this is a twist I haven’t really come across on all the ‘the moon landing was faked!’ shenanigans, that people actually…you know, watched it happen. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118/2 "2019-08-03T16:27:12Z")
[Nope.](https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/how-to-see-all-six-apollo-moon-landing-sites/) > [@](#): > > As you’re well aware, no telescope on Earth can see the leftover descent stages of the Apollo Lunar Modules or anything else Apollo-related. Not even the Hubble Space Telescope can discern evidence of the Apollo landings. The laws of optics define its limits. > > Hubble’s 94.5-inch mirror has a resolution of 0.024″ in ultraviolet light, which translates to 141 feet (43 meters) at the Moon’s distance. In visible light, it’s 0.05″, or closer to 300 feet. Given that the largest piece of equipment left on the Moon after each mission was the 17.9-foot-high by 14-foot-wide Lunar Module, you can see the problem. > > Did I say problem? No problem for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which can dip as low as 31 miles (50 km) from the lunar surface, close enough to image each landing site in remarkable detail. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118/3 "2019-08-03T16:30:57Z")
I’m not enough of an expert to say that that person’s story is total BS, but…I strongly suspect that it’s almost undoubtedly total BS. I suspect that the magnification of most home telescopes would be such that the Moon wouldn’t even totally fill the field of view. The Moon is about 2100 miles in diameter; given that size, even if you had a telescope strong enough that you could see just a portion of the Moon’s surface in your field of view, that’s still so, so much larger that the Apollo spacecraft (the CSM was only 36 feet long, the LM was only 31 feet on its longest dimension), that there’s simply no way you’d see “flashes or sparks” – or, if you did see such, those would have been either in your imagination, or artifacts of other things (like dust in the air near your telescope). ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118/4 "2019-08-03T16:41:28Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I’m not enough of an expert to say that that person’s story is total BS, but…I strongly suspect that it’s almost undoubtedly total BS. I suspect that the magnification of most home telescopes would be such that the Moon wouldn’t even totally fill the field of view. > > The Moon is about 2100 miles in diameter; given that size, even if you had a telescope strong enough that you could see just a portion of the Moon’s surface in your field of view, that’s still so, so much larger that the Apollo spacecraft (the CSM was only 36 feet long, the LM was only 31 feet on its longest dimension), that there’s simply no way you’d see “flashes or sparks” – or, if you did see such, those would have been either in your imagination, or artifacts of other things (like dust in the air near your telescope). Thank you, and Running Coach, it did sound unlikely which is why I was wondering. And if it was possible surely more people would have described watching it in this manner. I did think it may have been possible to catch reflected sunlight from the lander as it descended though. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118/5 "2019-08-03T16:50:00Z")
The brightness of the reflection off the moon outshines any glint you may see off an object. Can you see a campfire 100 miles away in the daytime? Also, if it were possible to see anything through a telescope, NASA would have footage of it. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118/6 "2019-08-03T16:55:38Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Also, if it were possible to see anything through a telescope, NASA would have footage of it. I think that this is the winner of the thread. If NASA wasn’t able to observe the landing telescopically, little Jimmy in Peoria certainly couldn’t have. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118/7 "2019-08-03T17:24:26Z")
My college’s Astronomy dept. had telescopes out in the desert that caught brief glimpses. The focused on the area around the terminator. They could see the CM (or CM+LEM) when it crossed the terminator. The CM being lit up while the background was the dark side of the terminator. They were relayed live to a TV network so once in a while they’d cut away, show the brief light as it crossed, then went back to their regular coverage. The only other possibilities are: When the CM/CM+LEM was on the far edge of the lighted side of the Moon. This would be similar to seeing what my Astronomy friends saw only with dark space in the background. The light from the LEM engine when lifting off of the Moon. This is doubtful. While the albedo of the Moon is only 0.12, that’s still too bright over too broad of an area. Plus, have you seen footage of the LEM ascent from the Moon? That’s far from bright. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-the-apollo-11-moon-landing-through-a-telescope/838118/8 "2019-08-03T21:12:49Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > My college’s Astronomy dept. had telescopes out in the desert that caught brief glimpses. > > The focused on the area around the terminator. They could see the CM (or CM+LEM) when it crossed the terminator. The CM being lit up while the background was the dark side of the terminator. > > They were relayed live to a TV network so once in a while they’d cut away, show the brief light as it crossed, then went back to their regular coverage. > > The only other possibilities are: > > When the CM/CM+LEM was on the far edge of the lighted side of the Moon. This would be similar to seeing what my Astronomy friends saw only with dark space in the background. > > The light from the LEM engine when lifting off of the Moon. This is doubtful. While the albedo of the Moon is only 0.12, that’s still too bright over too broad of an area. Plus, have you seen footage of the LEM ascent from the Moon? That’s far from bright. …I wrote a much longer reply but I spilled orange juice on my mouse earlier and its messing around badly… Thanks for the answer ftg, so while he may have seen something its not really what he described. I suppose if we’re being generous we can put it down to the vagaries of youthful memory. Regarding the LEM ascent, in any footage I’ve seen there’s something of a flash of the motor igniting but no real visible exhaust as it rises. Kind of puts it into perspective how much less mass the moon has in that it took a Saturn V to get there but the tiny LEM has enough thrust to make it back into lunar orbit by itself.