A friend tells you that a lunar eclipse will take place the following week, and invites you to join him to observe the eclipse through a high-powered telescope he owns. You are curious what the eclipse might look like from different perspectives in space. If the moon has a diameter of 2,159.14 miles, what is the maximum distance that it could be observed by the naked eye with enough detail that you could distinguish it from other celestial bodies (assuming that you have 20/20 vision)

y = 80.2 mille

Explanation:

The minimum size of an object that can be seen is determined by the diffraction phenomenon, if we use the Rayleigh criterion that establishes that two objects can be distinguished without the maximum diffraction of a body coincides with the minimum of the other body, therefore so much for the pupil of the eye that it is a circular opening

          θ = 1.22 λ/ d

in a normal eye the diameter of the pupils of d = 2 mm = 0.002 m, suppose the wavelength of maximum sensitivity of the eye λ = 550 nm = 550 10⁻⁹ m

         θ = 1.22 550 10⁻⁹ / 0.002

         θ = 3.355 10⁻⁴ rad

Let's use trigonometry to find the distance supported by this angle, the distance from the moon to the Earth is L = 238900 mille = 2.38900 10⁵ mi

       tan θ = y / L

       y = L tan θ

       y = 2,389 10⁵ tan 3,355 10⁻⁴

       y = 8.02 10¹ mi

       y = 80.2 mille

This is the smallest size of an object seen directly by the eye

the only real purpose of sputnik 1 was to beat the us into space. we were getting close to launching a useful satellite, explorer 1 - which launched on january 31, 1958. the ussr had to beat that, so they launched sputnik 1 on october 4, 19