In a singular twist of fate, a public talk debunking the Moon Hoax will be given at the Fiske Planetarium here in Boulder… and it won’t be by me!
The speaker is Stuart Robbins, a Bad Astronomy & Universe Today bulletin board regular (which is where I heard about this). The talk will be given this Thursday and Friday nights at 8:00, and you can get more info at the Fiske website.
I’ll be there, grading Stu on performance, poise, and the inevitable swimsuit competition (which is worth a suprprising amount of the final score). Any BABlogees in the area, come along!
July 17th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
The swimsuit competition is just degrading. I don’t want to see Stuart prancing around in a bikini. I like to use my eyes for astronomy. I need to keep them.
And yeah, the Moon Hoax. I knew the moon wasn’t real!!
July 17th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
It occurs to me I’m not sure if I’m going on Thursday or Friday. I think Thursday, but Friday might wind up being easier. I’ll update when I find out.
July 17th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Hoping that someone records it so that it can be presented on the web for those of us trapped in the back hills of Ohio
July 17th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
No, the moon is real, but it’s only about 200 miles up and goes in circles above the disk that is the Earth. Haven’t you ever seen the seal of the U.N.?
July 17th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
[quote]The swimsuit competition is just degrading. I don’t want to see Stuart prancing around in a bikini. I like to use my eyes for astronomy. I need to keep them.[/quote]
Don’t worry, the theater will be dark! And personally, I don’t want to see me in a bikini, either.
July 17th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
I’ll see if I can talk Mr. writerdd into going. Friday should work for us, since Saturday is the only morning he doesn’t have to get up a 4am for work.
July 17th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Since they supposedly drove around “rovers” on the moon, and the rover had 6 foot wide axle… shouldn’t we be able to see the “tracks” on the moon from the rovers that drove around.
Before you say that these type of optics cannot be obtained using ground based telescopes.. I point to what was called 4X4 tracks on mars (which turned out to be trails left by dust devils).
So if we can see dust devil trails less than 6 feet wide on Mars.. why cant anyone see the moon rover tracks?!
Maybe its because they aren’t there…
If they are there, then you could settle the whole moon hoax debate by just pointing your telescope to the supposed landing side, and show everyone the tracks, the lander module etc…
July 17th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Mike J,
Good question. But aren’t you mistaking trails on mars imaged by orbiting satellites, not earth-ground-based telescopes? As far as I know, we don’t have a working satellite orbiting the moon, or at least not one with the resolution of the latest Mars orbiters. I haven’t kept up lately, but the last ones I remember were the Lunar Prospector and Clementine satellites.
So, in short, you can’t see that level of detail from earth with an optical telescope. However, you can bounce a laser off of targets placed on the moon by the Apollo astronauts. Do a little research. This question been answered a hundred times.
B-)
July 17th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Also, Mike, have you ever looked at the moon with a telescope?
Even though the moon is really big (3476km in diameter) it is also very far away. At 384,400km (384,400,000 meters) from the earth, you could fit 110 moons between the earth and the moon. My little 114mm telescope can probably handle a magnification of 100x and still see well, but that would only make the moon appear 3844km away (or 3,844,000 meters). In order to see something on the moon as small as, say 1 meter (3 feet), I would have to use a magnification of, what, 384,400,000x… Right?
B-)
July 17th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Skepterist Says:
“Also, Mike, have you ever looked at the moon with a telescope?”
Probably not. Moon Hoax proponents don’t do research.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Mike: we have. I can’t find the image now, but we have pointed the Hubble at the moon (which we never do, because it’s hard to aim, plus it’s darned bright) and seen the Apollo 17 LEM. The tracks on Mars are invisible even to Hubble, and have only been images by Mars orbiters. Maybe Phil needs to add this erroneous claim to his Moon hoax debunking page.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Cameron, you have *got* to find that image; I’m sure we’d all love to see it. All the better to debunk the bunky crap.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
I think the whole idea that there are people in Colorado is a hoax. I’m going to see what a true authority, Hoagland, has to say about it. I’ll bet he’ll prove Phil doesn’t even exist. Hoagland knows everything.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Cameron, I’m sure that you’ve probably misinterpreted something you’ve read somewhere along the line. The limit of the angular resolving power of Hubble is at least an order or magnitude too coarse to even begin to image a lunar module.
On the other hand, an image from the Clementine satellite did provide some indirect photographic evidence for the Apollo 15 LM. The picture is of the purported landing area, and the coloration of the soil is quite a bit darker than images of the same region taken before that mission. The interpretation is that the soil was agitated by LM rocket exhaust: http://tinyurl.com/3dc89
July 17th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I may have misinterpreted it, but I’m pretty sure I saw that sometime recently. Not sure though. Consider it doubtful *until* I find it. No guarantees, though. I think it was kind of like the orbiter image of the Mars rover–A little silvery blob. Then again, maybe I’m remembering it wrong and it was from a lunar orbiter.
July 17th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Hi Cameron,
Could this have been what you saw?: http://www.inconstantmoon.com/lim_0307.htm
I can see how, if you just happened to glance at it on your way to some other page, you might’ve interpreted it as “Hubble Images Lunar Module”.
July 17th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
According to the HubbleSite, A close-up view of Copernicus’ terraced walls. Hubble can resolve features as small as 280 feet across.
So, Mike J, can you provide a link to your evidence of seeing tracks on Mars? you did say, “Before you say that these type of optics cannot be obtained using ground based telescopes.. I point to what was called 4X4 tracks on mars (which turned out to be trails left by dust devils).” Were you mistaken, or were you just stirring up trouble?
July 17th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
The tracks he’s talking about were imaged by high-res cameras on satellites orbiting Mars at low altitude. The angular resolution is still much less than that required to see Apollo rover tracks from Earth. This is what I meant when I said that Moon Hoax proponents don’t do research. Mike J couldn’t be bothered to clarify exactly how those Spirit/Opportunity track photos were acquired.
July 17th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Mark: I posted a link to the image. I’m positive it was it.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:42 am
The upcoming Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be able to image and resolve Apollo hardware.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Okay, so the talk is a hoax *debunking*? Good! I walked by Fiske Planetarium on the 4th and saw the ad. It was unclear immediately whether it was explaining the hoax or debunking the hoax. I made a mental note to find out, but then forgot. (I guess I need mental Post-It notes?) I would have been extremely disappointed and angry if my alma-mater was a proponent of the moon landing hoax nonsense.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
At this link as an image labeled “Hubble View of Apollo 17 Landing Region on the Moon.” Helpful?
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire_collection/pr2005029g/
July 18th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Correct, Ed. It is debunking the hoax claims. Next time I’ll make my own poster and hopefully it will be a little clearer.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
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July 26th, 2007 at 9:06 am
[...] week, I attended a talk at the local Boulder Fiske Planetarium dealing with debunking the Moon Hoax. It was given by Stu Robbins, an astronomer who frequents the [...]