Shuttle Telescopes Zoom In for a Few Quick Snapshots of Moon

Imagine photographing a road sign while speeding by it in a car. That’s what astronomers overcame Sunday to take the first ultraviolet snapshots of the moon.

Endeavour’s telescopes can zoom in on stars at the edge of the known universe with ease, but they struggle to focus on the moon, a mere 250,000 miles away, because it and the shuttle move so quickly around the Earth.

To make things even more difficult, the moon is so bright that it can throw off the telescopes’ alignment system.

Astronomer Randy Gladstone of the Southwest Research Institute said the moon was by far the most difficult target of the 15 1/2-day stargazing mission.

But Gladstone, together with other scientists on the ground and astrophysicists aboard Endeavour, was able to collect 12 ultraviolet images Sunday.

Gladstone won’t know how the 70-millimeter pictures turn out until after the shuttle lands Friday.

Such pictures can’t be made from Earth because the atmosphere screens ultraviolet light.