The Classic Apollo 11 Image
Author: Tom
Comments(23)
Comments(23)
Can you even begin to imagine seeing this with your own eyes? It’s no wonder Neil Armstrong couldn’t get to sleep.
I made some desktop versions of this and although they came out pretty good, I did have to do a little cropping.
1280 users you might need to stretch it a little to fit the desktop vertically ??
Image and source: NASA
How about us 1920×1200 users lol
The nifty picture still doesn’t explain how the astronauts lived through the radiation barrier that is in between the earth and the moon, with tin foil thick insulation in places…why is there no flag visible with the modern telescopes?
I am huge fan and believer in 99% of astronomy..but that 1% I dont buy, is the myth that we have been on the moon. We just wanted the credit over Russia and with our movie technology at the time, it was nothing to fake something like that. Why haven’t we been back? seems like we could use a jumping off point there, imagine a hubble type telescope orbiting the moon instead of the earth..just too many plot holes for me to believe that..
lunar earthrise wallpaper…
…
It’s a beautiful image, and it makes a beautiful desktop! The 1280 fits fine on my laptop without stretching. Thanks for making them!
It’s still an awe inspiring sight after all these years!
I agree…with all the expeditions that they are planning to search distant planets and other places..it would seem to make sense having a telescope on the moon or orbiting around.. I remember my parents questioning whether or not we had actually landed on the moon…I have always wondered if the flag was still there and if it could be seen from earth through a telescope..or will it only be seen through the super high-power ones not available to the general public?
PARANOIA WILL DESTROY YA’
My grand-parents came to the USA in 1906 and I remember them crying as WE landed on the moon! This is a great picture for a once great time in our history. Remember JFK…
Ok Justin, I got a 1920 up. Can’t say what it will look like, BUT you can see some of the stars in the background.
Thanks for the desktop images.
I am amazed that there are still conspiracy theorists out there. It is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. As far as not seeing the flags, that actually makes sense because the footprint of a flag is extremely small and so would require a resolution of, what? 6 inches or better? Also, there was a mirror(s?) left up there that has been used to determine the precise distance to the moon using lasers.
John,
Please oh please don’t be so willfully ignorant. Anything you could possibly be confused about has probably already been handled here: http://www.badastronomy.com/
You of course HAVE to be kidding about seeing flags on the moon from Earth! We can’t even see the largest rocks or the landing modules and you want to see a flag? Next you’ll demand to see footprints.
You don’t have to BELIEVE (implying faith) in anything, try educating yourself a little (well maybe alot).
Well you are entitled to your opinions, however wrong they may be. You mean to tell me we have telescopes that can see to the center of the UNIVERSE 100′s of billions of light years away, yet we cant see a flag just under 238,857 miles away? Thats just not logical.
You also expect me to believe a website dedicated to debunk to conspiracy theory over photos I can veiw myself posted by NASA themselves?
You still cant explain why we haven’t used the unlimited possibilities by using the moon as an extended “arm” for our own implementation..
My education is not at question here. I was taught the same thing you were, “we went to the moon”.
But in light of new findings I find that idea laughable at best. We can spot rocks, large and small on the surface of Mars which is considerably farther than the moon from us, yet we cant see them on the moon?
I have witnessed one of Saturns moons through a pair of binoculars….basically, if you choose to believe American propaganda at its best, its your choice, I for one, choose to open my eyes and realize the best faith I can have is we haven’t exactly been the most honest country on this planet.
Thanks for the wallpaper! the 1920 looks good!
John,
Unfortunately it IS your education in question. No I don’t expect you to believe that a telescope that can see a very distant, enormous, bright, object can’t see a flag on the moon. I expect that if you don’t understand optics that you should enlighten yourself. The answers are out there. Uh, by the way the rocks we’ve seen on Mars are either imaged by landers or from orbit and the best orbital images only show the largest rocks (boulders the size of houses). That moon you saw? How much detail did you see? It wasn’t even a disk it was a point source in your binoculars.
If you can find one single image of the moon taken from Earth that has a resolution better than 100 meters then I will retract everything and eat my hat. enlighten yourself here: http://www.tass-survey.org/richmond/answers/lunar_lander.html
Making up stupid stories to cover for what you don’t understand isn’t new but don’t expect others to be tolerant. I don’t expect the U.S. to always be truthful however coming up with some stupid conspiracy based on nothing that you think makes more sense isn’t helpful. You are responsible for perpetuating ignorance. There is nothing lower in my opinion.
“BUT you can see some of the stars in the background”
LOL. Thanks for the 1920… Even though I only needed the 1280.
heehee.
John,
I have something worthy of your debunking skills:
http://www.watermelonpunch.com/blog/archives/2006/07/flying_saucer_sighting.php
Good thing I checked out the link before replying. I’d thought your implication of Neil not being able to sleep was being overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of Earth seen from the Moon. And the impression I’ve gotten from the various books on Apollo and the astronauts is that maybe Buzz or Mike might have had a touch of poetry in their souls that would have responded to Earth’s glory in the sky, but Neil was more the hardheaded engineer with a mission to carry out and a checklist to complete. But it turns out the Earth was just plain bright, “like a lightbulb,” shining through a periscope lens right into Neil’s eyes when he was trying to sleep. Figures. I mean, look at how bright the full Moon is seen from the Earth, and that’s the sun shining on bare rock and dust. So imagine the Earth seen from the Moon, four times the size with sunlight reflecting off air, clouds, and water. I’ve seen the figures for the respective albedos somewhere, but I’ve forgotten the exact values — anyway, the Earth is _much_ brighter.
that is enough to wet your pants.
Maybe the moon men took the flag down… tastes good with green cheese!
To see the flag on the moon…
Let’s see what it takes to view something 6 feet across. Say, magnify it so it takes up an apparent 1/2 degree (ie, magnify a flag on the moon so it’s about as large as your thumbnail held out at arm’s length). No particular reason for this magnification, except that it’s a convenient was for a person to get a clear idea of how small the final image will be, and that the magnification will still be enough to recognize a flag.
The moon is (as stated above), about 238857 miles away, or (* 5280) 1261164960 feet away.
Simplifying the math a bit, we have a triangle.
… your eye
…..*
…./|
…/.| 126116490 feet
../..|
./…|
*—-+
flag – 6 feet across
The angle at your eye (the apparent angle of the flag with the unaided eye) can be calculated as:
angle = arctan(6/126116490)
….. = 2.725 * 10^-7
To magnify to an apparent 1/2 degree, we need a magnification of 1,834,290 times.
My binoculars, which are rather nice, have a 7x magnification. I’ve used 12x magnification binocs, but it’s hard to hold them steady enough. Great to know you can see the moons of Saturn through yours, but if you think that’s enough to see a flag on the moon, well…..
A telescope’s magification depends on the scope and the eyepiece, such that magnification = objective’s focal length / eyepiece’s focal length. Checking froogle, I see expensive scopes (thousands of bucks) with a focal point of 5000mm, and eyepieces with a focal pointdown to 7mm. That’s a 714x magnification.
We need a 2 million times magnification.
Houston, we have a problem…
Nasa claims Hubble is capable of 8000x magnification http://hubble.nasa.gov/overview/faq.php#power, hubbles claim to fame is clarity.
A lot of these big fancy computer scopes don’t have figures in magnification, but in resolution they can manage. They can see down to 0.002 arc seconds, where 60 arcsecond = 1 arcminute, and 1 arcminute = 1 second. That’s .0000166 degrees.
That flag is .000000275 degrees.
um.
That’s why we can’t see the flag through a telescope – it’s a damn small flag!
As for using the moon as a base, that’s expensive as hell. Flying Hubble out there is a hell of a lot more expensive than flying it to Earth orbit (think of the cost and trouble of shipping a package across town, vs shipping a pacakge to rural Sudan.)
All that for a random post I stumbled across on some random site I’ll never visit again. God, I’m such a geek. I want to beat myself up and steal my lunch money.
HELLO
I’M WRITING FROM ITALY AND I’M LOOKING FOR A WALLPAPER “EARTHRISE”LIKE THAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR SITE BUT I’M LOOKING FOR A BIG FILE,GREAT FORMAT TO PRINT A BIG WALLPAPER 2 MT X 2 MT OR BIGGER
CAN YOU SELL IT TO ME?
THANK YOU PETER
Edit: Peter, I don’t have that, try googling for it.
Hi! I am from down under, and I have just been searching the net for any one that is interested in Apollo 11, and such like. My grand-mother recently passed away, and whilst cleaning her house I found a rather interesting item. It is a still boxed commemorative toy of Buz and Neil. It was apparently issued by NASA. I am yet to track one down on the internet. Have you ever heard of this item, or does anyone actually recall NASA issuing this toy if you sent away for it??? There were six to collect, but I only have one. I would be really grateful for anyone that might have any knowledge.
Many, many thanks,
Mel
Wow, I love how that John guy is an idiot. What’s even better is how everyone is proving that. I think the flat-earth society is looking for people like you. Tell me John, are you one of those “intelligent design” theorists as well?