Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

Gotchas ! / Chap. 17 p. 143
GOTCHAS!
On Sunday, July 24, 1993 — the anniversary of the safe return of our Apollo 11 "First
Men on the Moon" intrepid astro-nots — this manuscript was complete, awaiting only make
up and review of the galleys. I awoke, as usual, with the first light of dawn and a distinct
feeling that something needed doing besides the obligatory bathroom visit. I obliged the
bathroom but couldn't go back to bed where I felt I really belonged. Something was nagging
my mind.
I staggered to my meager collection (four books) on space flight fairy tales and methodically
poked through them in an aimless fashion. I was trying to find out why my hunch
button was zinging since I hadn't even looked at any of them for over a year. The last one to
be finger flicked was a coffee table book called FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON published
by the Associated Press in 1969. It has 200 large size, glossy pages, uses extra large type and
is a typical coffee table book containing scads of full color pictures.
When I reached the end of this book, I began another flick-through. When, nothing
happened, I skimmed through it again. Then I finally recognized what I had been searching
for. That search triggered all the "Gotchas" in this section added after the first printing.
GOTCHA # 1
On page 192 of FOOTPRINTS is an official NASA photo of the "Flag Salute Ceremony"
being executed on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Armstrong and Aldrin
surrounded the flag as the light from the low altitude Sun cast long shadows of each of them.
The picture printed here is reduced in size, and in black and white, because neither size
nor color is germane to this "Gotcha". I didn't even try to get a duplicate of this picture from
NASA. The three pictures I had previously ordered took about eighteen months and
countless phone calls before they were delivered. When I received them, only one of the
pictures was what I ordered. They sent two substitutes 1 didn't want or need.
Before continuing with the analysis of this picture let's remember some background. It
was decided that the Apollo 11 LEM, the "Eagle", should have optimum lighting conditions
for the first lunar landing. Collins describes NASA's choice of the Sun angle for viewing the
ground during landing. "If too high, i.e. overhead, the craters and boulders would not cast
shadows, and depth perception and obstacle avoidance would be a real problem. Too high
also meant the surface would be too hot. Too low, and the shadows could get so elongated
that they would obscure other useful details and again make a visibility problem for the
crew. A sun angle of about 10 degrees was deemed perfect" 1 Then Collins spent a few pages
describing the cause of the Moon's phases (waxing and waning), and how they determined
the neccessary time of departure from Earth in order to land at the chosen site so that the Sun
would be ten degrees above the horizon.
The Eagle landed at 4:18 EDT. 2 A short time later the Eagle, now calling itself "Tranquility
Base", transmitted the following: "I'd say the color of the local surface is very
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene