Sigh! Now there's another "debate". I joined in at No. 42:
www.trademe.co.nz/Community/MessageBoard/Messages.aspx?id=20932945&threadid=20932945By the way, other Kiwis, if you browse "Apollo" in the DVD section there at Trade Me, there have been some good-quality DVDs from Boulevard Entertainment that are taken from the aerospace subject on the old U.S. Military Channel for $20 each. They are Region 0 PAL. Fronted by astronaut Woody Spring, STS-61B, 1985.
So far I've bought two,
Space Shuttle Machinery -- Apollo 14: Mission to Fra Mauro and
The Flight of Apollo 7 -- Apollo 8: Go For TLI. The Apollo 14 movie is the only full-length copy I've been able to buy on video tape or DVD -- it's only missing the final credits (duration 27 min 42 sec) -- and don't worry about the typo on the cover -- "Maura". The second DVD lists its second title as
Debrief, Apollo 8, but it is actually
Apollo 8: Go For TLI.
Also that guy Kurtis, post 68, has been selling el-cheapo $11 copies of a DVD of most of Aulis's two video tapes,
What Happened on the Moon? I think they are an American bootleg and are missing just the last 35 seconds of the credits. Kurtis doesn't have any listings at present, but it might pay to look him up for a while to see if he offers it again.
I've done a 16-page index of the DVD and briefly debunked some points. Anybody is welcome to a copy -- PM me and I'll email it. Sample:
0:21:19 Hasselblad, Sweden
0:21:31 Jan Lundberg, Group Manager, Space Projects, Hasselblad, 1966-75
0:22:16 Reticules on film — light bleeds into shadows
0:23:25 Brian Welch
0:23:41 Jan Lundberg
0:23:52 Ronnie Stronge: However, the Apollo pictures, those with the reticules, were not taken as stereo pairs. [Not true at all. There are many stereo pairs.]
0:23:58 Shadows in photos
0:24:07 David Percy: In these earth pictures of typical tree shadows, notice the parallel lines of shadow on the ground. [Not true — check this. Two pieces of paper laid along the shadows will meet just outside the top right of the screen.]
0:24:08 Tree shadows — two trees
0:24:13 David Percy: And also that the shaded side of the trees is very dark, which does not allow for any visible detail. These points are both logical and unsurprising. [It also logical and unsurprising that the shaded side of tree trunks is dark because their colour is dark, just like the rocks on the lunar surface. And it is logical and unsurprising that they could be lightened by a suitable increase in exposure, just like subjects on the moon. Note also that the distant buildings are lit up, even though they are in shadow too. This is logical and unsurprising too, because they are light-coloured, although nowhere near as light as a white spacesuit.]
0:24:14 Tree shadows — three trees. [Two pieces of paper laid along the left and centre shadows will meet just outside the top left of the screen.]
0:27:50 Percy's shadow analysis is wrong — shadow directions can vary depending on what they fall on. The correct method is to connect part of an object with the corresponding part of its shadow. With a single light source, all the lines will then meet at some point — either where the light source is or at its opposite point.
0:28:00 'C' rock — Ralph Rene. [The 'C' is merely a hair, probably in the enlarger, on one particular print run.]
0:29:05 4 — The Speed of light
0:29:23 David Percy — Fill-in light
0:29:27 David Percy points out a silhouetted horseman, but neglects to point out the other horseman is lit up, and without the fill-in flash that he maintains is necessary
0:51:00 Una Ronald, Resident in Western Australia during Apollo: When this Moon landing was in the offing, I, for one, decided to stay up to watch the live telecast and I did. And we saw a lot of activity on the television screen from the control centre. A lot of anticipation, a lot of excitement. [The event she describes actually happened at just after 11:45am in Western Australia, so she could not have "stayed up" to watch it live.]
0:51:16 Mike Collins in collar and tie
0:51:18 Honeysuckle Creek, Australia, 1969
0:51:18 Ronnie Stronge: But before we get to what happens next, we need to know how the TV coverage of Apollo 11 was supposed to have reached our screens.
0:51:25 Bill Wood, Goldstone: Just shortly before Armstrong stepped on the Moon, you can actually see the switch take place where it goes from this stark black-and-white to a little better, and they stayed with the television signal from Honeysuckle Creek. So when Armstrong stepped on the surface of the Moon it actually came through Australia, but at the time it was reported as being through Goldstone. The voice came through Goldstone, but the TV pictures came from Australia.
1:01:47 David Percy: In the TV footage these gauntlets look totally unpressurised and more like sturdy gardening gloves. Using unpressurised gardening-type gloves would explain how the astronauts in the TV coverage managed to manipulate the Hasselblad and the imaging equipment. [The outer gauntlets we see were indeed unpressurised as they were only outer coverings. The pressurised gloves were inside the gauntlets and had restraining layers — they did not blow up like a balloon. Similar restraining layers can be seen on tyre pumps, vacuum hoses and pressure hoses.]
1:02:03 No viewfinder
1:02:22 Apollo 15 salute — AS15-88-11866
1:02:26 Douglas Arnold
1:02:50 David Percy: This picture from Apollo 15 can only be described as a good example of a typical advertising pack shot. [It is one excellent photo among many roughies. Naturally, editors only publish the good ones. Worthy of note is what Percy doesn't point out — that Jim Irwin took one photo of Dave Scott by the flag and it is nowhere near as good as this one. But also, Scott took three photos of Irwin and this is the best of those three. See AS15-88-11863 to 118666.]
1:04:05 Fake studio set-up. Note the fill-in light on the shorts of the man at left, which Percy earlier claimed was impossible.
1:04:08 Shadows. Percy does not take into account fluctuations in the height of the ground on which the Apollo 11 and 12 shadows fall.
1:04:44 Shadow movement near the Apollo 14 LM. [There is nothing strange — the shadow falls on uneven ground.]
1:14:17 Bobsleigh, 1990. Here Percy makes an absurd comparison between an open bobsleigh in an atmosphere, compared with the sound received by a noise-cancelling microphone inside a bubble helmet, which in turn is inside an enclosed, pressurised lunar module, with a rocket exhaust on the outside in a vacuum, where the usual noise is not created and, even if it was, where sound cannot travel. Jet engines are very noisy outside an aircraft, but are they equally as noisy to the passengers inside?
1:15:04 Sound and Vibration
1:15:27 Apollo 11 landing. Calm astronauts — naturally! They were mature test-pilots, not flighty teenagers. Their microphones were inside their helmets and were the noise-cancelling type. Most of the noise from rockets is caused by the exhaust interacting with the atmosphere, creating mini sonic booms, and this noise isn't created in a vacuum. The only noise would be that of the fuel and oxidiser flowing through the system.
1:15:57 Rocket test
1:16:12 Ronnie Stronge: So the incredible roar of the engine would have produced considerable sound and vibration. According to some sources, even through their bubble helmets the astronauts could hear the noise of the thrusters firing, yet apparently they couldn't hear the roar of this powerful rocket engine. That's a little difficult to believe, isn't it? [Well no, only for those who are ignorant of how rockets behave. Because, as pointed out above, it is the atmosphere which causes most of the noise that a rocket engine makes.]
1:17:20 Surveyor 3, photo AS12-48-7099
1:17:42 Apollo 12 Surveyor sequence. This is an Earth-based simulation, not the actual landing — the astronauts couldn't see Surveyor 3 when landing. Compare the very rough, stony ground in the simulation with the smoother surface on the moon in the still photo.
2:04:50 Film of Apollo 15 hammer and feather drop
2:05:04 Note that the feather is held horizontal, unlike in the other drops Percy shows
2:05:09 Ian Crawford: This is also a very difficult image to fake.
2:05:12 David Percy: Well actually, it isn't at all difficult to fake. NASA itself would repeat the very same trick, this time officially, in the 1999 story From the Earth to the Moon. [Again, Percy insists that it is an official NASA production, which it is not.]
2:05:22 Clip of hammer and feather from From the Earth to the Moon. Note that the feather is held vertical.
2:05:30 Hammer and feather dropped. The feather rotates due to air resistance.
2:05:31 Cut to the actor's feet. The hammer comes down at a different angle to the last scene and the feather is again rotating.
2:05:34 Apollo 15 drop
2:05:40 David Percy: Before NASA re-enacted the whole thing officially... [Percy seems desperate for us to believe that From the Earth to the Moon was an official NASA production, but it was copyrighted by Home Box Office, a division of Time Warner Entertainment Company. The producers were Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Michael Bostick, and the Executive Producer was Tom Hanks. The credits state: "This motion picture is a dramatization based on certain true facts. Some of the names have been changed and some of the events and characters have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes."]
2:05:47 Aulis's experiment. Again, the feather is held vertical and looks like it might be weighted. We wonder why.
2:06:04 Aulis's experiment slowed down