Celestia Forums

http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2004/293.html

They're considering building a huge pinhole camera in space that can detect planets as small as Earth's moon. Would that work?

Limitations on this system will include the difficulty of keeping the sail motionless with respect to the camera- it will be susceptible to solar wind and light pressure;
long exposures will be difficult.
and the size of the hole itself will limit the detail that can be seen, I should imagine.

I've thought about this very thing before. I don’t think its realist because there isn’t enough light coming from stars, but then putting them through a pin hole, the exposure time would have to be massive. I would expect the resulting images wont be good.

I don’t think it doesn’t matter if there is movement on the camera, as long the movement can be tracked. (somehow)

However; When I think how light travels through space, and how we currently capture it, I do think there are other ways to make telescopes that have yet to be explored.