The Hubble Telescope's Field of View

Size of the Moon Illusion

The Angular Size of the Moon

HST Field of View

Copernicus Detail

Thumb with sand grain held below the full moon.

During 1999, the HST's Wide Field Planetary Camera actually took a series of overlapping exposures of the Moon's surface while the telescope's spectroscopic camera was being calibrated. The WFPC's field of view (fov) is 2.7 minutes wide, about one twelfth the diameter of the moon. To photograph the full face of the Moon would require one hundred and thirty (130) WFPC exposures.