Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

Star Light - Star Bright / Chap. 5 p. 33
stars are bright and they are steady." 4
Then, by the time he gets to the Agena, the stars are gone. Three years later, on his way
to the moon in Apollo 11, he writes, "I can't see the earth, only the black starless sky behind
the Agena, ..." 5 And on the next page, "As I slowly cartwheel away from the Agena, I see
nothing but the black sky for several seconds,..." 6
One hundred and fifty pages later he also writes, "What I see is disappointing for only
the brightest stars are visible through the telescope, and it is difficult to recognize them when
they are not accompanied by the dimmer stars,..." 7
That's an incredible statement. Our normal stars seen clearly through a thick atmosphere
here on Earth by the naked eye were so dim in space that even a telescope fails to reveal them.
All I can conclude is that star-blindness must be like malaria: you are subject to unpredictable
random attacks of star blindness when you are in zero gravity. It is a good thing that this
doesn't happen here on Earth. Imagine the consternation if half the people say, "See that
bright star up there!" and the other half asks, "Up where"
Nevertheless, as the Apollo 11 capsule rounded the Moon the situation changed. As
reported by Harry Hurt: "Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, by far the most laconic
member of the crew, was also moved to comment: "Houston, it's been a real change for us.
Now we are able to see the stars again and recognize constellations for the first time on the
trip. The sky is filled with stars, just like nights out on Earth." 8
But as they rounded the Moon once again, the situation brings forth this comment from
Mike Collins. "Outside my window I can see stars — and that is all. Where I know the moon
to be, there is simply a black void; the moon's presence is defined solely by the absence of
stars." 9 Naturally Collins couldn't see the stars if he were looking toward the dark side of
the Moon, but if the Apollo 11 rotated, or came around the limb of the Moon, stars should be
visible.
More confusion emerges as we read the following "explanatory" quote by Collins: l0
"Toward the sun nothing, nothing can be seen but its blinding disk, whereas down-sun
there is simply a black void. The stars are there, but they cannot be seen because with
sunlight flooding the space craft, the pupil of the eye involuntarily contracts, and the
light from the stars is too dim to compete with the reflected sunlight, as both enter the
eye through the tiny aperture formed by the contracted pupil. No, to see the stars the
pupil must be allowed to relax, to open wide enough to let the starlight form a visible
image on the retina, and that can be done only by blocking out the sunlight." Then they
rig plates over the windows and he reports, "Under these conditions the eye slowly "dark
adapts" itself, and the brighter stars gradually emerge from the void."
Fourteen years later Collins wrote another book. The writing is so different from his first
that one would almost think it was written by someone else (or at least another ghost
writer). In it he proclaims, "My God, the stars are everywhere, even below me. They are
somewhat brighter than on earth ..." 11 Toward the end of that book he declares, "Never a
day without sunshine, or a night without stars —fat, unblinking stars." 12 Golly, Collins saw
the light at last!
Every star is just a point of light. Even the closest stars cannot be magnified, or resolved,
into a perceptible sphere by the largest of our astronomical telescopes. However, point for
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene