06 Jun '10 00:04>
In another thread about paving the moon with PV cells we were playfully talking about using the pv's and outfitting them with either LED's or MEMS to make images that could be seen by naked eye on Earth.
Anyone have any idea how many lumens it would take for a light on the moon to be seen on the earth, like new moon V full moon and such? If we say watts of an ordinary light bulb, the energy in that is 97 or so percent wasted so we need a number that can be converted to pure light energy, for instance if we say you need a 100 watt light bulb minimum to be seen by the naked eye on Earth, that means really you are seeing 2 or 3 watts of actual light. I am pretty sure that is a way low number, just using that as a starting point.
Anyone have any idea how many lumens it would take for a light on the moon to be seen on the earth, like new moon V full moon and such? If we say watts of an ordinary light bulb, the energy in that is 97 or so percent wasted so we need a number that can be converted to pure light energy, for instance if we say you need a 100 watt light bulb minimum to be seen by the naked eye on Earth, that means really you are seeing 2 or 3 watts of actual light. I am pretty sure that is a way low number, just using that as a starting point.