Quote Originally Posted by sniper7 View Post
i wouldn't call him a great guy, but he is manageable.

The hubble was launched in 1990. Think of the technology changes since then, even simple things like a cell phone, then move on to cameras, how many megapixels you can get, the quality of glass, the quality of the focus you can get now. And that is just on simple stuff we use every day.

Even in 2000, satellites could see if a vehicle had a license plate, couldn't read it, but could tell if one was there. 14 years is a lot of time and a lot of satellites have been launched since then.
Sensors change but optics doesn't. There's a limit to what kind of resolvable image you can get based on the primary aperture of the telescope. Yes, you can compensate for atmospheric distortion using deformable mirrors but that usually requires something like a laser guidestar. You can do subpixel processing but that usually requires extended image integration which is pretty tricky given the satellite motion. Bottom line, I might buy the satellite could see the expiration sticker on your plate but I don't buy it can produce a resolvable image allowing you to read the sticker.