[ExI] Fermi question

[Kelly Anderson]

On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 4:17 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 9:53 AM, Kelly Anderson  wrote:
>> In this video from 18 to 20 seconds, you can see some lights on the
>> earth that appear to be city lights, but it's hard to tell at the
>> YouTube resolution.
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdSFT8Ouqg&feature=player_embedded
>>
> That video is from the EchoStar 11 Satellite, 22,300 miles up. About
> 1/10 the distance to the moon.
> The ‘eyes’ of the DISH Earth camera observes objects in the visible
> spectrum, similar to the human eye, with a resolution of about 20 km
> per pixel.

I am perfectly willing to accept that you can't see man made
structures from space without a lot of magnification even from low
earth orbit. My question has shifted to whether or not you can see the
city lights from the moon, because you can CLEARLY, EASILY see them
from LEO...

One exception might be the palm islands in Dubai... apparently, they
can be seen from LEO, and advertise that they can be seen from the
moon, but I rather doubt that unless you had a pretty big telescope.
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM32W59CLE_index_0.html

-Kelly