Test out the power of your binoculars, telescope, or even naked eye with this convenient, standardized eye chart located right on the moon.

The first letter, E, will be so big that almost anyone can read it with their naked eye from Earth. Beneath it are letters which decrease in size until they can be read only with binoculars, then a small telescope, then with a ground-based observatory telescope; then, letters of such infinitesimal size that even Hubble can barely make them out.
-- phundug, Dec 01 2003

Culturally insensitive lunar pollution - fishbone.

I would suggest using existing lunar features for the test.
-- DrCurry, Dec 01 2003


Native Americans and other ancient cultures used a double star in the handle of Ursa Major named Mizar as an eye test for their children.
-- krelnik, Dec 01 2003


"Objects in image are further away than they appear..."
-- RayfordSteele, Dec 01 2003


//Culturally insensitive lunar pollution// +

The large sum of money future researchers will go through to figure out this meaning. +

And still not understand. +

Just about everyone would hate this idea. +

Somebody may like this idea. -

McDonalds may pay a large sum of money for the E to instead be an M. +

Crescent Roll for you.
-- sartep, Dec 01 2003


Leave the moon alone, please.
-- waugsqueke, Dec 01 2003


Perhaps I'm missing something, but wouldn't this be a test that would be rather simple to cheat on?
-- Worldgineer, Dec 01 2003


The moon is probably too bright for huble to look at, but maby not.
-- my-nep, Apr 25 2004


Dr. Curry, a rather unconventional optometrist, uses existing lunar features for the eye test, leading his patients out of the office into the night air.
“Why are we out here,” Ms. Ravenswood says, pulling her sweater tight against the cold.
“For your eye test, of course. So, what do you see?” he says, pointing towards the horizon.
“The moon?”
“Yes, that’s right! What else?”
“Ah, well, there’s a man in it.” She looks at Curry. “A bald man?”
“Right again. Now what’s below that?”
“A woman.”
“A woman? Where’s a woman?” he says, putting on his glasses.
“Right below the man.”
“I’m looking, but I don’t see a woman.” He's leaning forward, as if to get closer.
“See, she’s naked.”
“Really! Well...I don’t see....”
“And there’s a baby.”
“Now come on!“
“And a kitty. See the kitty?”
-- ldischler, Apr 25 2004


Kind of kills the romance of looking for naked women on the moon if there's a big E at the top.

I'm also not sure how you intend to keep the letters facing the right way. At the very least, it would be upside down from the southern hemisphere... and without MAGIC it would be rather difficult to keep the image from appearing sideways when the moon rises and sets.

You'll also need a lot of electricity to keep the letters lighted when the moon is new, and some special processes for keeping them visibleish during all the phases between full and new, unless you plan to alter the rotation of the moon, or illuminate it from earth.

Aside from these minor problems, I'd bun the idea just because of all the space colonization you'd need to build the chart... but until you get some non-magic solutions, I propose to give you a fishbone eyechart. Look as closely as you want. There's a big E there on the skull...
-- ye_river_xiv, Nov 08 2006


An alternative to this idea, which I'd support, would be to blast huge, shiny titanium letters out into space. These floating three-dimensional letters could be used for calibrating, testing, and comparing different telescopes.
-- phundug, Aug 19 2011



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