Post by Kiwi on Feb 9, 2006 10:50:45 GMT -4
I'm probably not the only one who's a little tired of uneducated claims that from the moon the Earth should have been visible among gazillions of highly visible stars. So for any others, here's a little about the view of the Earth from the moon by someone who should know. It's from the commentary track of the DVD of Al Reinert's movie, For All Mankind.
Gene Cernan — Seeing the earth from a distance
0:26:27 Al Reinert: Did you find yourself appreciating the earth in a different way? It's always interested me, like with the Russian cosmonauts, or all these people that have been just in earth orbit and spent a lot of time looking back at the earth, they become very... almost spiritual about it. 0:26:42
0:26:42 Gene Cernan: I wish every one of them who has been in orbit around the earth could have a chance to look back from a quarter of a million miles away. I think their perspective would certainly not only be changed, but enhanced a tremendous amount. So there's a lot of people who have seen the earth but who haven't seen the earth, and those people who went to the moon, I think, are the fortunate few to have seen it in its true perspective. And there's no question in my mind, but when that first earth-rise picture, the earth coming over the lunar horizon, that was seen in the pictures that were taken on Apollo 8, has changed the way the world looks at itself. I mean, for the first time we've seen the earth rising over the horizon from another planet. 0:27:24
Gene Cernan — A spiritual statement
0:27:40 Gene Cernan: You're up there and you see one world. It's been described as a jewel, as sensitive and tender as a Christmas tree ornament, and it is delicate. I'd go back in a minute — tomorrow morning if I had an opportunity. [Talking about the view of Earth] It was overpoweringly beautiful and it's three-dimensional, surrounded by this infinite blackness, and you don't see the artificial barriers that we place upon ourselves. You don't see the language differences and the colour differences and the cultural and ethnic differences that are so evident and prominent on this Earth, anywhere in this Earth, you just see the barriers that were created by the creator who established the Earth. 0:28:23
0:28:23 Gene Cernan: I'm one of those who believes very strongly, there's too much purpose, too much logic, that the Earth is too beautiful to have happened by accident. That is not a religious statement, that's a spiritual statement that says, "Hey, there must be a creator of the small part of the universe that I was privileged to see, 'cos it's just too beautiful to have happened by accident." 0:28:41
0:28:41 Gene Cernan: And if I could take everybody in this world and sit 'em next to me on a swing on God's front porch, where I found myself on more than one occasion, I think we would all, perhaps, have a different perspective of ourself. Now I don't know that that would change a great deal down here on Earth, but it would sure give us all something to think about. 0:29:03
0:29:05 Gene Cernan: It comes to you in space, when you're out there that far and looking back, there is no question, it's a reaffirmation of something I probably believed all my life and never gave much thought to, and I never had much evidence of it. Now I have evidence — I have seen it. 0:29:20
Al Reinert — Not what you expect from a fighter pilot
0:29:20 Al Reinert: See, that's not the sort of thing you expect to hear from a Navy fighter pilot, and several of your colleagues with you speak like that. It had a spiritual dimension for them too. 0:29:29.
Gene Cernan — Values, feelings and thoughts
0:29:30 Gene Cernan: But just because you're a fighter pilot, just 'cos you want to do something exciting or adventurous, some people say just 'cos you're a pain-killer. When you believe in defending your country, I know as a kid I had a dream of flying airplanes off aircraft carriers and I had no idea what that was going to lead to, but just because that's what you want to become or that's what you want to do, and people look at that as a little exotic, a little adventurous, a little risk-taking, doesn't mean that you can't have values and feelings and thoughts. You know, we've never had a ticker-tape parade for a robot, okay? You know, you can send a camera to the moon or to Mars and that's fine, but the questions people ask are questions that cannot be answered by computers or machines, because they are questions that have to do with feelings and thoughts and sensitivity and intelligence and fear and anticipation, and only a human being can answer those questions. And we all have those sensitivities, whether you're a fighter pilot or a scientist or a geologist or a poet or an artist or a writer. 0:30:38
0:30:39 Gene Cernan: Thrust into a situation like we were thrust into, going to the moon or on the moon, we all might say it differently but we would all express it from, I think, from the only thing we can express it from, is that's from the heart. And that's what's coming out now, in Al Bean's paintings and in some of our writings. 0:31:01
0:31:07 Gene Cernan: It's too big of an experience not to share with people. Another stimulus to me, writing the book, came a few years ago when a very good friend of mine, in just a conversation like we're having right now, said, "Gene, you've got to understand: You may think you're no different, than anybody else, and you still may put your pants on one leg at a time, just like everybody else, but the fact of life is, you are different, you're one of 12 human beings who walked on the surface of the moon. You've done what people have only either dreamed about doing, or a lot of people thought was impossible." And I took that very seriously and I accept the fact. I can't live in the past and I don't live in the past. But, you know, I'm sure when Christopher Columbus came back from that voyage, there were not many people in the world who really understood the significance, including probably, Columbus himself, of what he had done. And it took us hundreds of years to realise the importance of that voyage he took across the ocean. It still may be another 50 or 100 years before we truly, as mankind, as a civilisation, truly understand the significance of what we did back in the 'sixties and 'seventies. 0:32:23
Gene Cernan — Seeing the earth from a distance
0:26:27 Al Reinert: Did you find yourself appreciating the earth in a different way? It's always interested me, like with the Russian cosmonauts, or all these people that have been just in earth orbit and spent a lot of time looking back at the earth, they become very... almost spiritual about it. 0:26:42
0:26:42 Gene Cernan: I wish every one of them who has been in orbit around the earth could have a chance to look back from a quarter of a million miles away. I think their perspective would certainly not only be changed, but enhanced a tremendous amount. So there's a lot of people who have seen the earth but who haven't seen the earth, and those people who went to the moon, I think, are the fortunate few to have seen it in its true perspective. And there's no question in my mind, but when that first earth-rise picture, the earth coming over the lunar horizon, that was seen in the pictures that were taken on Apollo 8, has changed the way the world looks at itself. I mean, for the first time we've seen the earth rising over the horizon from another planet. 0:27:24
Gene Cernan — A spiritual statement
0:27:40 Gene Cernan: You're up there and you see one world. It's been described as a jewel, as sensitive and tender as a Christmas tree ornament, and it is delicate. I'd go back in a minute — tomorrow morning if I had an opportunity. [Talking about the view of Earth] It was overpoweringly beautiful and it's three-dimensional, surrounded by this infinite blackness, and you don't see the artificial barriers that we place upon ourselves. You don't see the language differences and the colour differences and the cultural and ethnic differences that are so evident and prominent on this Earth, anywhere in this Earth, you just see the barriers that were created by the creator who established the Earth. 0:28:23
0:28:23 Gene Cernan: I'm one of those who believes very strongly, there's too much purpose, too much logic, that the Earth is too beautiful to have happened by accident. That is not a religious statement, that's a spiritual statement that says, "Hey, there must be a creator of the small part of the universe that I was privileged to see, 'cos it's just too beautiful to have happened by accident." 0:28:41
0:28:41 Gene Cernan: And if I could take everybody in this world and sit 'em next to me on a swing on God's front porch, where I found myself on more than one occasion, I think we would all, perhaps, have a different perspective of ourself. Now I don't know that that would change a great deal down here on Earth, but it would sure give us all something to think about. 0:29:03
0:29:05 Gene Cernan: It comes to you in space, when you're out there that far and looking back, there is no question, it's a reaffirmation of something I probably believed all my life and never gave much thought to, and I never had much evidence of it. Now I have evidence — I have seen it. 0:29:20
Al Reinert — Not what you expect from a fighter pilot
0:29:20 Al Reinert: See, that's not the sort of thing you expect to hear from a Navy fighter pilot, and several of your colleagues with you speak like that. It had a spiritual dimension for them too. 0:29:29.
Gene Cernan — Values, feelings and thoughts
0:29:30 Gene Cernan: But just because you're a fighter pilot, just 'cos you want to do something exciting or adventurous, some people say just 'cos you're a pain-killer. When you believe in defending your country, I know as a kid I had a dream of flying airplanes off aircraft carriers and I had no idea what that was going to lead to, but just because that's what you want to become or that's what you want to do, and people look at that as a little exotic, a little adventurous, a little risk-taking, doesn't mean that you can't have values and feelings and thoughts. You know, we've never had a ticker-tape parade for a robot, okay? You know, you can send a camera to the moon or to Mars and that's fine, but the questions people ask are questions that cannot be answered by computers or machines, because they are questions that have to do with feelings and thoughts and sensitivity and intelligence and fear and anticipation, and only a human being can answer those questions. And we all have those sensitivities, whether you're a fighter pilot or a scientist or a geologist or a poet or an artist or a writer. 0:30:38
0:30:39 Gene Cernan: Thrust into a situation like we were thrust into, going to the moon or on the moon, we all might say it differently but we would all express it from, I think, from the only thing we can express it from, is that's from the heart. And that's what's coming out now, in Al Bean's paintings and in some of our writings. 0:31:01
0:31:07 Gene Cernan: It's too big of an experience not to share with people. Another stimulus to me, writing the book, came a few years ago when a very good friend of mine, in just a conversation like we're having right now, said, "Gene, you've got to understand: You may think you're no different, than anybody else, and you still may put your pants on one leg at a time, just like everybody else, but the fact of life is, you are different, you're one of 12 human beings who walked on the surface of the moon. You've done what people have only either dreamed about doing, or a lot of people thought was impossible." And I took that very seriously and I accept the fact. I can't live in the past and I don't live in the past. But, you know, I'm sure when Christopher Columbus came back from that voyage, there were not many people in the world who really understood the significance, including probably, Columbus himself, of what he had done. And it took us hundreds of years to realise the importance of that voyage he took across the ocean. It still may be another 50 or 100 years before we truly, as mankind, as a civilisation, truly understand the significance of what we did back in the 'sixties and 'seventies. 0:32:23
