Go to http://www.google.com/maps and search for Laredo, TX. Once there click on the box in the upper right corner of the map that says Hybrid. This will give you an Aerial view of Laredo with the map on top if it. Now, follow I-35 to where it ends at the border crossing. Zoom in on this area. There is a crescent shaped building with a red roof that is the customs station. Just to the north of that building is a couple of oval buildings. Three blocks due north of the eastern oval building is a large building with kind of a pink squiggly thing over it. That pink squiggly thing is a VERY LARGE United States flag. Based on the scale in the lower left corner of the image, I estimate that the flag is about 40 to 50 feet long. Now then, this photo was taken from only a few thousand feet above the surface and you can see how small the flag looks. The flag that the astronauts left on the Moon is only about two feet long and the moon is about 238,855 miles away. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to see it with telescope from here on Earth. ************** I should have thought to add a picture myself. But it was late and I have never actually used this function before. So, here is a GoogleEarth picture that is closer in than the one my brother provided. The Map coordinates at the bottom are the coordinates for the flag. ************** "scubabob: Terrible analogy. One can use this http://science.howstuffworks.com/mars-rover3.htm for a size comparison then http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061009.html if you were to use a space based observation. Even then, it doesn't address distance." I am not sure that I get your point. How is that really significantly different from my comparison. Again, the photos of the Mars rover were from much, much closer than the distance from here to the Moon. Additionally, my comparison using the flag uses a similar shaped object to the one in question. Also note that in both cases, you would be looking down at the flag on its smallest dimension, its edge. With the rover, you are looking at it on it largest dimension, it's top. So, I really think that my comparison is better because I am actually showing a more realistic view of what you would see of the flags that we left on the moon. (And before you go nit picking any more, yes I am aware that the flags on the Moon would not wave in the wind as the one pictured below is. However, that would just make it all the harder to see them.) *************** "scubabob: No, I guess, being a little blinded by ones own brilliance, wouldn't let them see the point. Try actually crunching the numbers of orbital distance, resolution and size of the object imaged.Also, I did mention in my comment about distance. Additionally, those google earth shots are taken from the moon now are they?" Maybe you should take your own advice and try reading the answer, I said that the Google Earth photos were taken from only a few thousand feet. Therefore, if that huge flag is hard to see from that distance, then the smaller ones on the Moon are going to be impossible to see over the huge distance between the Earth an the Moon. *************** "scubabob: As an addition. The mars probe is currently resolving surface features down to 40 inches. Just about the size of a flag." Again, what has that got to do with the question? The mars probe is IN ORBIT AROUND MARS at only a few miles to tens of miles up. It is not trying to resolve that kind of detail from 225,622 miles away which is the distance between Earth and the Moon. *************** "scubabob: Everything to do with it. It proves that objects that size can indeed be seen. "scubabob: And you are the one using google earth as an example. NOW do you get my drift?" I never said that something that size could not be seen from ORBIT. What you seem to be missing is that there is a huge difference between seeing something from just a few miles away (standard orbital distance) and seeing something from over 225,622 miles away (the minimum distance between the Earth and the Moon. The Mars probe can see the Martian rovers because it is only a few miles away. The Google Earth photos are able to show the flag here in Laredo because it is only a few miles up. We can't see the lunar landing sites from here on Earth because they are a couple of hundred thousand miles away.

Because the moon landing was staged - it's a conspiracy, man!

we just have to believe (or not believe) what they say. its not that i dont believe them, i just dont know what to believe because there could me any number of anything out there

Because galaxies are many trillions of times bigger than the flag, on a nice dark background.

they can't take a picture of what isn't there! :-P downrated i know!!!!

Now theres a thought!! so who said that there definitely are galaxies trillions of miles away? was it just a theory perhaps???? now you got me thinkin highlander...........

Because it never happened.

Why would we? We have pictures of it already. We know it's there. Why would we waste the time, money, and energy to look at something we made? Why not aim the Hubble at Mt. Rushmore, while we're at it? Or Trump Tower? Re-aiming a space telescope is no easy matter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#Observation_scheduling

Take a look at the image below. See the reddish slash across the top of the lager building in the center? That is a HUGE American Flag that was photographed by a satellite in low Earth orbit. Notice how hard it is to see this flag which is waving in the wind? This picture was taken from only a few tens of miles up of a huge flag. The Moon is well over 200,000 miles away and the flags that we left there much, much, much smaller than the one in the photo below. Telescopes don’t have the resolution to see something that small from that distance. So, this, in addition to Im Alec’s answer is why we can’t see the flags we left on the moon but can see other galaxies. Oh, and just in case you want to check this out for yourself, I downloaded this image using Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/). You can find it at 27° 30’ 21.63” N Latitude, 99° 30’ 07.84” W Longitude.

It is about the angular resolution of the image. Cameras (Should) be quoted with a given angular resolution, as a coefficient. E.g. an angular resolution of 0.5 means that at 1 metre, the smallest thing you can capture is 0.5 metres across. So at 10,000,000 metres, it has to be 5,000,000 metres across, so on so forth

i'm thinking it may be because it is on the other side of the moon. just in the last twenty years or so the moon stoped spinning retrograde and spins in unision to the earth therefor we always see the same side. one side that we see has a little gingerbread man at the top right the other side looks like a dino foot print.

No pictures of a boring old flag on the moon but we did manage to snap this:

A properly digitized picture would show if the flag was there or not regardless of resolution problems. Watch a PGA golf program once to see just how trackable from a long distance a tiny white ball is. The camera on the blimp can make the ball fill your screen or show the entire course on your screen. So the statement about resolution is bogus. Finally the so called arc/angle math is also bogus. If you fix a telescope on the moon, even though the moon moves across the sky the face remains fixed for that lunar orbit. If the flag was there and someone with access to a university scope or a government agency (ha ha ) would have made pictures of the flags aplenty. As for the non scientific side of it. Someone, somewhere would have put the money into it to get pictures of what's up there for some kind of commemorative nonsense to sell to the public. So in the end trust your gut feelings, the U.S government faked this whole thing to save their asses from looking like monkeys compared to the Russians of the day.

because the moon is far away from earth

'Cuz it's on a pay-per-view basis

going funny........... because my thingee broke that let me see that far away.

I'm lucky to be able to make out a newspaper in front of my face and you're asking why I can't see something that is like one hundred miles away? The flag is too small I'm a guessing. +5

Because maybe it isn't there at all! Maybe it is as the documentery says it was done on a sound stage. But even at that it is so small in comparison to the distance away it cannot be seen. Can you see a 4 X 5 flag 50 or 100 miles away even with a pretty good telescope?

If you look at the google shots of the landing sites they cover up where the landers and astronauts landed and walked. Lets see the same, in some cases very high resolution shots, without the google scribbles. If we can see anything at all, then I will believe. Not a single disaster or mishap from completely untried technology?, what are the chances of that!! No one can convince me that the Hubble telescope couldnt see whatever is left on the moon. Any pictures it takes could be digitally enhanced and prove it beyond any doubt. I have, until recently, always believed, but now I have huge doubts!

1) Maybe they have been burnt... ;-) 2) "On July 17, 2009, NASA released initial photographs of the Apollo 11, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 landing sites taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter before it reached its mapping orbit. These photographs show part of the lunar module from each mission on the surface of the Moon. The picture of the Apollo 14 landing site also shows tracks created by an astronaut between a science experiment and the remains of the lunar lander." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Moon_landing_hoax_conspiracy_theories Further information: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html

First of all, it is on the Lunar side of the moon, the side that faces away from the Earth. Secondly, the flag is way too small to be seen with a telescope from someone's back yard.

The flag is tiny. The moon is large. It is also very far away. Read Glenn Blaylock's answer for the details...

Because it's too far away, silly!

An enduring question ever since the manned moon landings of the 1960s has been: Are the flags planted by the astronauts still standing? Now, lunar scientists say the verdict is in from the latest photos of the moon taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC): Most do, in fact, still stand. "From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11," LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson wrote in a blog post today (July 27). "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported that the flag was blown over by the exhaust from the ascent engine during liftoff of Apollo 11, and it looks like he was correct!" http://www.space.com/16798-american-flags-moon-apollo-photos.html

North Korea spanked it's ass.

probably cause its too far away

Cause it was made in Vietnam. And they wanted it back.

You're looking out the driver's side window. Look out the passenger side window.