Ian Pearse
Mars
Apollo (and space) enthusiast
Posts: 308
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Post by Ian Pearse on Oct 17, 2009 9:11:38 GMT -4
I joined, for fun, a facebook group called "Don't Bomb the Moon", to see what they were on about. As expected, it is the usual mix of mis-understood science and general guff that you come across. One thing that fascinated me was a series of comments from a lady who is convinced that the Moon consists of an outer and inner sphere, linked by steel trusses at the poles, and that the craters are portholes to the inside. She posted links to some pictures with areas highlighted to show purported holes and the inner sphere...? The links go to a site called holyconservancy.org. I had a brief look at it, and it's the biggest load of baloney I have seen in a long time. Has anyone else come across this? What is known of these people?
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Post by gillianren on Oct 17, 2009 15:17:04 GMT -4
Unless they're making a Batman reference, the idea of "holy conservancy" as opposed to run-of-the-mill secular conservancy kind of worries me.
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vq
Earth
What time is it again?
Posts: 129
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Post by vq on Oct 17, 2009 16:51:50 GMT -4
Yeah, that page is so out there that I have no idea what their point is. Moving on...
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Ian Pearse
Mars
Apollo (and space) enthusiast
Posts: 308
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Post by Ian Pearse on Oct 17, 2009 17:28:55 GMT -4
The lady I'm debating with at the moment seems to think that our ideas about the distance to the Moon are so far off that crater diameters are a factor of a thousand too large. This is based on her identifying statues and people on the Moon from photographs - if she can see that, our ideas of the scale of the Moon must be way off. Never occurred to her that, just maybe, her analysis skills may be a little off...
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Post by Kiwi on Oct 18, 2009 0:28:38 GMT -4
The lady I'm debating with at the moment seems to think that our ideas about the distance to the Moon are so far off that crater diameters are a factor of a thousand too large. She probably wouldn't like me, with my books about the moon, Anotonin Rukl's Hamlyn Atlas of the Moon, plus all the new scans of the lunar photos on the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal DVDs. This link www.boulder.swri.edu/~durda/Apollo/landing_sites.htmlmight give her a good idea of scale, and the Apollo 11 photos help to identify West Crater (the one which Armstrong manually overflew) in AS11-37-5447HR, which is at about 11 o'clock from the centre of Columbia. You might or might not want to tell her that Moltke, the biggest crater on the left, is 6.5 km diameter and 3120 metres deep.
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vq
Earth
What time is it again?
Posts: 129
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Post by vq on Oct 18, 2009 13:19:20 GMT -4
the Apollo 11 photos help to identify West Crater (the one which Armstrong manually overflew)... Someone really should have warned Armstrong in advance how confusing it would be to have West Crater to the east. You might or might not want to tell her that Moltke, the biggest crater on the left, is 6.5 km diameter and 3120 metres deep. I kind of doubt it will matter. How do you debate someone that far gone? BTW, that's amazing. I had didn't realize how deep lunar craters can be. Is Moltke typical?
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Ian Pearse
Mars
Apollo (and space) enthusiast
Posts: 308
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Post by Ian Pearse on Oct 19, 2009 8:30:15 GMT -4
I don't think anything is going to help with this lady. She insists the Moon is no more than 20km in diameter. Based on an average apparent diameter of 31 degrees, this would put the distance to the Moon, if my maths is correct, of 36.058km....(radius of 10km = 10000m, distance being 10000 divided by tan 15.5 degrees). I'm pretty certain the Moon is somewhat more than 36km away....
Please let me know if I've made an error in my maths - this was just off the cuff stuff...
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Post by homobibiens on Oct 19, 2009 9:49:22 GMT -4
I don't think anything is going to help with this lady. She insists the Moon is no more than 20km in diameter. Based on an average apparent diameter of 31 degrees, this would put the distance to the Moon, if my maths is correct, of 36.058km....(radius of 10km = 10000m, distance being 10000 divided by tan 15.5 degrees). I'm pretty certain the Moon is somewhat more than 36km away.... Please let me know if I've made an error in my maths - this was just off the cuff stuff... That's why it looks bigger from the tops of tall mountains, because it is so much closer.
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Ian Pearse
Mars
Apollo (and space) enthusiast
Posts: 308
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Post by Ian Pearse on Oct 19, 2009 12:05:43 GMT -4
Based on the 36km orbital altitude, I went a bit further. The Moon's orbital velocty works out at around 59km/hr.. interesting.
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Post by BertL on Oct 19, 2009 14:14:18 GMT -4
Based on the 36km orbital altitude, I went a bit further. The Moon's orbital velocty works out at around 59km/hr.. interesting. Heh. I was going to go the extra mile and calculate the approximate weight of this "Moon" based on these numbers using Newtonian equations, but in the end I gave up. I shouldn't have given up science and started a major in English. Oh well.
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Ian Pearse
Mars
Apollo (and space) enthusiast
Posts: 308
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Post by Ian Pearse on Oct 19, 2009 14:51:34 GMT -4
Good ole gmm over rsquared huh? Good thought. Might be an interesting exercise
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Ian Pearse
Mars
Apollo (and space) enthusiast
Posts: 308
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Post by Ian Pearse on Oct 19, 2009 15:53:05 GMT -4
OK, spotted a major boo-boo in my maths.... comes of rushing into things. Used degrees when I should have used minutes. makes the distance 4435.8km instead.... still not a lot, mind you!
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Post by drewid on Oct 20, 2009 3:50:30 GMT -4
The site also details little humanoids being seen in Apollo photos, and even a clipped schnauser dog. It's as woo as it gets.
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Ian Pearse
Mars
Apollo (and space) enthusiast
Posts: 308
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Post by Ian Pearse on Oct 20, 2009 14:58:18 GMT -4
You're telling me!
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Post by Apollo Gnomon on Oct 21, 2009 1:35:55 GMT -4
I've looked over her site, and I read thru the thread. Eek. She's mad as a hatter.
Fascinatingly, I'm seeing similarities with some other idea-sets. The local AM station that carries Alex Jones also has a show by a weird messianic judaism couple.
Her other site (abidemiracles) has some messianic judaism along with quotes from the Urantia book, A Course In Miracles (contradictory to the U book, but frequently found together), survivalist nonsense, and crochet patterns. I find links to Alex Jones and his "work", David Ikes (the "reptilian shape-shifter" guy), prison-planet, Pyramid Power, chemtrails, the Philadelphia Experiment, and EVERY OTHER GOOFY-@$$ IDEA OUT THERE.
Just. Frikken. Wow. What's the deal with these people?
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