Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

Gotchas ! / Chap. 17 p. 144
comparable to that we abserved [their typo] from orbit at this sun angle —about 10 degrees
..." 3 So, here is the picture that revealed its hidden treasure on the silver anniversary of the
Apollo 11's return to Earth. A blurb next to the photo tells us that Armstrong is holding the
staff and that Aldrin is holding the flag. If their actual heights were accurately reflected by
the lengths of their respective shadows, then side by side they would have resembled the old
cartoon characters — Mut & Jeff.
The first discrepancy is immediately apparent. Two men of nearly equal height have cast
shadows of very unequal length. Not only that, but, once again, shadows which should be
parallel, converged. The following measurements were taken from the reproduction printed in
FOOTPRINTS, using a dial vernier caliper calibrated in inches.
Astro-not Height (in) Shadow length (in)
Armstrong 2.140 3.065
Aldrin 2.200 4.440
Aldrin's shadow is 45 percent longer than Armstrong's shadow. There is obviously
something very wrong with this picture. At first glance it seems to require two different
sources of light. Willis Carto of the national weekly newspaper "The Spotlight" soon ended
that thought. He called it nonsense, and it was! The only possibilities left are it is a
composite picture; the shadows have been painted in or it represents a sample of early
computer graphics.
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene