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More Creativity - Fun and Inspiration

 

The following creations show the fun side of being an Apollo enthusiast. Many of the offerings use Apollo images and scenes as a basis, but with unexpected additions. Some show members of the ALSJ/AFJ team having Apollo-like adventures here on Planet Earth. And still other offerings make use of Apollo material for various artistic purposes. Enjoy!

23 August 2013

Sam Milazzo has created a scene that might be called: "Cut! Who left the %^$*@^ Jeep on the set!?"

22 June 2012

Here's photo of Jim Scotti doing a John Young Salute next to one of the artificial craters created (with explosive charges) by the USGS for astronaut training at Cinder Lake, Arizona. Jim and a friend were on their way to the Grand Canyon in early December 2005. They "stopped at Cinder Lake just before sunset and hiked across it to one of the two artificial crater fields, namely the one in the center of Cinder Lake. We got to the craters just before sunset and as I looked around, I was almost giddy, realizing that it looked very much like it must have looked to stand on the Moon itself with the sun just above the horizon."

1 November 2012

In early 2008, Ed Hengeveld used portions of AS11-40-5863 to 69 to create a view of Buzz on the porch (4.0 Mb or 0.4 Mb). Neil did not capture the top rear of the LM with these pictures. Journal Contributor GoneToPlaid points out that Ed filled the gap with a portion of AS17-149-22860, which was taken in orbit after undocking.

7 October 2011

Thomas Schwagmeir and Eric Jones have added another map to the "Apollo and the Cities of the World" series. Overlays of the September 2011 version of the Apollo 12 traverse map have been made on a simplified map of Rome - with Surveyor Crater coincident with the Colosseum - and on a simplified map of the Vatican. See, also, Apollo 17 in Paris.

24 October 2010

Andy Green has done an artistic experiment, making an anaglyph from two copies of a single photo, creating an interesting sense of depth. Here are two examples: one showing the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle in flight ( 0.2 Mb ) and the other showing Charlie Duke at Plum Crater ( 0.5 Mb ).

9 September 2010

Francisco Fernández has created an animation including most of the major in-flight events of an Apollo mission ( 21 Mb Flash Video ).

4 June 2010

Hermann Dür has created a 1:142 3D model of the Apollo 11 site ( 0.2 Mb or ( 1,0 Mb ) , based on the 1978 USGS/Defense Mapping Agency site map. Hermann was unaware of an analysis done in early 2009 by Scott Cruickshank which shows that Nei's run out to Little West Crater started from near the LRRR, rather than the PSEP, a result that was confirmed by the October 2009 LROC image, taken at local noon. Rather than risk damage to the 3D model in an attempt to correct Neil's path, he as done a digital realization of the correct track.

22 December 2009

Joe Koziar has used the high-resolution scans now available to us from the original film to revisit Pete and Al during their visit with Surveyor III ( 2.6Mb ). See, also, the 2003 version by Andrew Chaikin and the c.1999 version by Adam Bootle.

21 November 2009

Patrick Vantuyne has been making good use of high-resolution orbital photos available in the LPI Apollo Image Atlas to make anaglyphs from AS11-42-6304-05 and AS11-44-6592-93.

9 October 2009

A
second look at the Apollo 11 landing site with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera on 8 August 2009 09:15:31 UTC, clearly shows the tracks left by the Apollo 11 astronauts during the EVA. In particular, the tracks Neil Armstrong made during his brief jaunt out to Little West Crater show up clearly. A few Journal Contributors also noted what appeared to be a continuation of those tracks easterward from Little West. Jim Scotti has done some advanced photo processing and has discovered a previously unknown traverse segment AND a previously hidden side to Neil's personality.

6 October 2009

Colors of the Moon. The astronauts sometimes mentioned the color of the regolith appearing to be a brownish-grey in some directions but, overall, the color is grey. That hasn't stopped artist Alan Bean from using a colorful pallet. Here, Patrick Vantuyne has added a yellowish tint to a portrait of John Young at the Rover near Spook Crater ( AS16-109-17840-41 ). See, also, Bean's 2007 portraits of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, jointly titled "First Men"

22 August 2009

Yuri Krasilnikov has used AS16-113-18339 and 18340 to create stereo of John Young's jumping salute, in the form of both a red-blue anaglyph and a left-rght image pair. A bit of artistry was necessary to create credible stereo. In the left-right pair, Charlie captured John's first jump in 18339, which is on the right. In the original of 18340, we see that John isn't as far off the ground and is tilted to his left. In addition, there are footprints beneath him that he made when he landed after the first jump, a clear indication that John is closer to Charlie than he was in 18339. Creation of a credible anaglyph required removal of the image of John from 18340 and careful replacement with the image of John from 18339.

16 August 2009

Ron Stefano created a LM caricature for the book The Apollo 11 Moon Landing - 40th Anniversary Photographic Retrospective by Dennis Jenkins and Jorge Frank. "To some people, non-enthusiasts, my drawing is not immediately identified as a caricature - maybe that was the way they had the Lunar Lander in their memories - which helps on the definition of a caricature - it emphasises the 'essence', much like the memory stores the essential facts and features."

Your friendly ALSJ Editor mentioned to Ron that his LM brought to mind a Sumo wrestler, crouched and ready to charge. "I agree that the overdone large stance of the legs and the 'bent-over' forward face part of the lander give it a Sumo-like appearance - interesting comparison. The artwork is a drawing in the strict sense - colored pencils and china ink, a bit enhanced by CG.

13 August 2009

On the occasion of his 50th birthday, David Woods proudly displays his new number plate, a gift from Anne and their sons, Kevin and Stephen. The red Scottish Roving Vehicle replaces an earlier model used on the famous traverse to the London Receiving Lab with David Harland.

16 June 2009

Stuart Atkinson has contributed a portrait of Neil Armstrong saluting the U.S. Flag. Stuart's creation combines one Apollo 11 image and one from Apollo 17. See, also, a B&W version. Stuart writes, "What I've tried to do here is create Armstrong portraits worthy of inclusion in Michael Light's fantastic book, Full Moon.".

11 June 2009

In honor of the upcoming Apollo 11 Anniversary, Ed Hengeveld has created a new painting, "The Eagle Has Landed".

19 May 2009

Yuri Krasilnikov has combined AS17-141-21493 and 94 in an animated GIF ( 412k ) showing the TV camera in motion at Apollo 17 Station 6.

29 March 2009

Syd Buxton has updated the NASA Apollo patch ( png format and jpg format). Syd writes that he was inspired by Colin Mackellar's 40th Anniversary patch. "It started off as an exercise in refreshing my memory about the ins and outs of Paint Shop Pro, which I have used for about 10 years now as my graphics package of choice. Essentially I re-drew all of it, with a fair amount done as vector images. The raster elements include: Earth comes from a screenshot done in 'Celestia'; the Moon is from AS11-44-6664; the God Apollo is actually taken from the version in the Apollo 17 patch."

25 February 2009

Here's Colin's Apollo 11 40th Anniversary patch ( 0.5Mb.

24 February 2009

Colin Mackellar has created a vectorized version of the Apollo 11 Patch ( 0.4Mb ). "Here's a version I did as part of the process of making a 40th anniv logo. I cleaned it up and then vectorised it - which means it's scalable (PDF, Illustrator, etc.). You could scale it to VAB size!"

4 August 2008

As a follow-on to the gratifying popularity of our Apollo 11 traverse on both a baseball field and a soccer pitch, Thomas Schmwagmeier and I have created Apollo 17 traverses of Paris ( 0.8Mb ). After appropriately placing the LM at Notre Dame, we were pleased to find that, as I had hoped, the EVA-2 return path closely follows the Seine and, pleasingly, the important stop at Shorty Crater coincides with the Eiffel Tower! With thanks to Thierry Bisiaux for inspiration.

30 July 2008

Patrick Vantuyne has created (1) a striking red-blue anaglyph ( 435k ) from AS17-147- 22548 and 49, two frames from Jack Schmitt's Geophone 3 documentation; (2) an "Impossible Picture" of Neil and Buzz at Tranquility Base ( 267k ); (3) a striking red-blue anaglyph ( 793k ) of Gene Cernan saluting the US flag from AS17-134-20378 and 79; and (4) a striking red-blue anaglyph ( 101k ) from AS14-66-9301 and 02, showing Ed Mitchell taking a TV pan.

19 July 2008

Stefan Schulz writes, "As a child of the year 1969 and being an electronic musician (well, actually I am a software architect, but musical composition has always been a part of my life), I wrote a track reflecting my emotional binding to the first lunar landing" Stefan's creation is called Tranquility Base.

25 March 2008

René Cantin has created Salute at the Flag, which is built around Dave Scott photo, AS15-92-12447, of Jim saluting. The rpesesnce of Mt. Hadley Delta in the background inspired René to create a more complete panoramic setting. He added AS15-92-12449 and 12450 on the left, "blending them in and re-arranging the foreground." On the right, he used AS15-87-11855, which is a frame from Jim's EVA-2 ALSEP pan but, because the distance between the LM and the ALSEP is small compared with the distance from either to the mountain, gives a good fit. Because 11855 is a color image, some effort was needed to &quot'match the color pixels to the black-and-white ones". The footprints to the right of the Rover and in the foreground were taken from the top part of AS15-92-12406. Finally, the Rover shadow is from AS15-85-11414 flipped upside down and distorted; the LM's parabolic antenna is from AS15-82-11121; and the cross-hairs have been reworked using AS15-92-12247 was a guide.

20 March 2008

René Cantin has added the horizon beyond Dave ( 0.2 Mb ) to AS15-82-11129.

1 January 2008

René Cantin has created 10:09 in the Morning, which is built up from Jim Irwin's down-Sun, Station 7 "before", AS15-90-12224, with " 71-HC-725 used for the helmet and the top of the PLSS. The stripe was graphically added. The belt attachment on the LEVA was taken from 71-H-1103; and the righthand part of the picture comes from AS15-90-12203. The title refers to the time - in Houston - visible on Dave's Omega watch."

30 December 2007

Dave Bohlmann has created a view of the LM ( 0.8 Mb ) from the flank of Mt Hadley Delta - during the SEVA! Zoom in on the LM and you may see Dave Scott looking toward the camera. Dave B. writes, "Here is a Fun Pic I made based on Col. Scott's favorite image: AS15- 84-11324, the 500mm shot of the LM he took from Station 6, with Pluton in the background. I took that image, got rid of the ALSEP, and made a few shadow changes under the LM in the Quad 3 area. I then took Jim's frontal image of Dave in AS15-82-11168, got rid of the PLSS and stuff, tried to match the brightness with the LM, and shrank it down. Basically, this would show Dave looking twoard the spot where he later took 84-11324. He said that, duyring the SEVA, he could get on his elbows and hold himself up, so I put him a little high out the hatch. Sort of follows the spirit of his fav pic -- the vast grandeur of the Moon vis-a-vis basically insignificant Man."

13 December 2007

René Cantin has created A New Look At the Station 2 Boulder, which is built up from Jim Irwin's down-Sun of the Station 2 boulder, AS15-85-11439.

7 November 2007

René Cantin has created a portrait of Dave Scott at Hadley Rille called A La Terrasse (At The Terrace). René writes, "Here is a montage of Apollo 15 photos taken by astronaut Jim Irwin at the Terrace at Hadley Rille, plus some artistic work on my part. If Irwin, at this moment in history, had raised his camera just a little bit, this is what we would have seen behind Dave Scott." The Terrace is a broad shoulder on the edge of the Rille which, as indicated in the pre-flight Apollo 15 EVA-3 traverse map and in the Final Lunar Surface Procedures volume, extended from about the planned location of Station 9 northwest to the planned location of Station 11. Dave and Jim did Stations 9a and 10 near the planned locations '9' and '10' and, hence, A La Terrasse. René tells us that he used AS15-82-11146, which shows Dave reaching for the hammer, training photo 71-H-1103 for the LEVA, AS15-82-11147 for the view down the rille, and portions of various other photos. In using 71-H-1103, he had to add a Commander's Stripe to the LEVA and, as a final master stroke, reseau crosses.

13 August 2007

Ron Wells offers "Cable Reels, Anyone?" ( 274k ) in reference to Jack Schmitt's troubles during the SEP deployment starting at 122:54:12 Ron notes, " I duplicated the reel (taken from the original image, AS17-134-20439 and) feathered the edges, which improves the look with respect to the background. I only had to do that once since all the duplicates are also feathered. I did change the angle of the one on the big rock at the left and added a shadow across the rock face. You will note that I positioned them wherever there were noticeable shadows originally made by a stone, rock, or footprint or tire tread so that I would not have to mess with shadows-- lazy, I guess." Editor's note: Ron provided this image in March 2005. I apologize for the long delay in getting it added to the Fun Images page.

29 July 2007

Carlos Corso uses AS16-113-18340 to "show what can happen when you jump in a low gravity environment :-)" We might call his creation An Exceptional Jump. Your editors are reminded of a classic - and satirical - 1880 mathematical adventure story / social satire, Flatland, by E.A. Abbott, which is readily available in print and, also, online.

19 July 2007

David Harland returns to the ever-popular theme of the Lunar Grand Prix ( 1.1 Mb ).

13 July 2007

Gavin Stone has created a startling composite ( 0.4 Mb ). Gavin writes, "The bottom half of the composite is from AS-14-66-9232, taken at about 10:21 USEST on February 5, 1971, after erection of the flag on the first AS-14 EVA. This is the first American in Space, Al Shepard (RIP), in a 'tourist shot' taken by Ed Mitchell at Fra Mauro. The top half of the composite is a cis-lunar shot taken on Apollo 17. I can't remember the exact image I used, but I think it was AS17-48-22718. The UK flag is there, because being a resident of the UK, I hope that one day in the future we work in alliance with the USA and other countries to further explore the Moon and space."

15 June 2007

In his book, Moonwalker, on pages 199-200, Charlie Duke recounts a dream he had prior to Apollo 16. In the dream, he and John Young were driving the Rover and came across some vehicle tracks. After getting permission from Houston to investigate, they came upon a car that "looked very similar to our rover - and it in it were two people...There was no movement from the two astronauts, and we couldn't see their faces because the sun visors were down." In the dream, Charlie then raised the visors and saw himself. The other astronaut looked like John. Houston had no explanation and asked John and Charlie to bring back samples of the vehicle and the suits for analysis, which showed that the vehicle and its occupants had been on the Moon for 100,000 years.

Bob Farwell has created two composite visualizations of Charlie's dream: one in color and one in black-and-white. The first of these is set at Plum Crater. The second at Station 13. With regard to the latter, Bob writes, "I used AS16-106-17394 and 17395 as the background, enhanced the gray scale values, combined the two into one (almost) seamless image, and removed the reticules. I deleted the reticules because I wished to make the viewer feel as though they are an actual observer. The tire tracks were 'borrowed' from AS15-82-11056. The foreground rover is from KSC-71PC-777; foreground helmets are from AS17-134-20426; foreground Charlie Duke is from AS16-114-18423; the earth is from AS11-44-6568, the background John Young is from AS16-114-18388, background rover (and reflection in Charlie’s visor) is from AS17-140-21409."

4 June 2007

Tahir Rahman has created a large-format image ( 60k ) showing the reflections in Buzz's visor as captured by Neil in the famous photo, AS11-40-5903. Note that, in addition to the LM, Neil, the US flag, and the SWC, we can see the Earth reflected near the top of the visor. For a full discussion of the reflections, follow the link in this paragraph to 5903.

24 January 2006

Patrick Vantuyne has combined Apollo 16 image AS16-116-18607 with one of galaxy NGC 4565. The composite ( 386k ) speaks eloquently about humanity's first steps into the Universe.

22 November 2005

Adam Bootle has created Salute at Tranquility ( 653k ) and writes "I used AS11-40-5872 (Aldrin erecting SWC) and AS11-40-5874 (Aldrin salute). I had to remove Aldrin from 5872 and remake the landing gear and edit the shadows, then I matched up the portions of the LM and made new shadows so they didn't look like they were diverging too much."

10 August 2005

Carlos Corso writes, "Last year I made an off-road trip with my car. When I returned, some friends were in doubt that I can go anywhere with that old car. My answer was: 'With this car, I can go to the moon'. Then I made the picture. Later, I printed the picture and gave a copy to the buyer when I sold the car."

Carlos's creation reminds me of the outrage expressed by some in the media and in Congress when they learned that NASA had spent 31m (US, 1970) developing the Lunar Roving Vehicle. After all, they said, perfectly good, new cars could be bought for under $4000 at any automobile dealership. Carlos shows us what might have happened had these worthies had their way. Ignoring such minor problems as the difficulty of getting even a small sedan to the Moon, the problem of running an internal combustion engine on an airless world, and the basic question of how a suited astronaut would gotten in the front seat and worked the controls, it seems to me that the real showstopper would have been this: having seen a rental car buried up to it hub caps in dry sand on a Hawaiian beach (no, I wasn't the driver, just the passenger), I don't think that a Ford or Chevy sedan would have handled conditions at Hadley, Descartes, or Taurus-Littrow very well. ;-)

10 August 2005

Dean Eppler calls attention to a contribution ( 270k ) by Pulitzer Prize winning Newsday political cartoonist Tom Darcy (1933-2000) which sums up the problem that some journalists had covering the first lunar visit by a professional geologist.

19 August 2004

As part of a continuing series of post-Apollo excursions by members of the ALSJ/AFJ Team, the crew of the SS Minnow recently touched down in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pictured here (left to right) are crewmembers Glover, Jones, and Lotzmann. Photo by Angele Glover.

29 April 2004

Erik van Meijgaarden has created a mini-pan of Ed Mitchell at Station C-Prime and, in an enhanced version has "filled in the black area at the bottom with some rocks and soils from various images taken during this EVA."

13 April 2004

Ulli Lotzmann reports that Pete Conrad "planned to bring a huge baseball cap to the lunar surface, but of course this idea was rejected by NASA." Ulli shows us what Pete and Al would have looked like with this extra equipment.

15 March 2004

Ian Regan writes: "Here is a mosaic that I have just finished working on that shows a view of the Apollo 11 landing site at Mare Tranquillitatis, using Hasselblad photographs taken by Buzz Aldrin. I wanted to produce this composite after browsing through the pictures on Kipp Teague's excellent 'Apollo Archive' website - I saw the opportunity to have Armstrong, Eagle, the Flag and the Sun all in a single frame, using genuine in-flight Apollo photography. I call the mosaic Armstrong and Eagle Under a Blazing Sun. The images I used are AS11-44-6598 (ascent stage photographed by Mike Collins in lunar orbit prior to descent), AS11-40-5886 (Armstrong at the MESA), AS11-40-5887 (more of the descent stage), and AS14-66-9305 (because no A11 images show the sun from the lunar surface).

Ed Hengeveld has completed a painting called Landing at Hadley. At the request of the person who commissioned the painting, Ed has exercised a bit of artistic license in showing the landing much closer to the rille than was actually the case. A full-size version is also available.

13 March 2004

Gene Cernan has commented that one of the reasons that it was difficult to judge distances was the lack of familiar objects like trees and houses. In an effort to remedy that situation for Taurus-Littrow, I have taken a frame from Jack Schmitt's Station 3 pan and have added three appropriately scaled copies of a famous, 15-meter-tall object: one on the southern rim of Lara, one on the lower slope of the South Massif just above Nansen, and one just below the South Massif summit. My wife, Di, says my effort should be called Despicable Violation ( 1.7 Mb ).

30 December 2003

Andy Chaikin writes, "For today's work avoidance project, I decided to mock up the Life magazine cover that would have resulted from Pete and Al's Hasselblad timer photo at the Surveyor. (I ended up with the same configuration for Pete and Al that Adam Bootle did.) I stole the Life logo and headline from an image of the actual Apollo 12 cover - and even the date and price in the lower right corner, for that extra hint of believability."

13 December 2003

Ulli Lotzmann claims that, during welcoming ceremonies aboard the recovery carrier, USS Hornet, the Apollo 12 crew was asked, "How was it on the Moon?" and that, in response Pete, Dick and Al held up a sign. Ulli says that it is "a weird story, but obviously true". I am doubtful. Dare I suggest that the photo is a fake?

29 October 2003

David Harland and David Woods, intrepid Scottish explorers, recently completed a fun-filled traverse from Glasgow to London. Check it out!

24 October 2003 Ricardo Salamé Páez has created two Apollo 11 composites called Flag and Earth and Where to Park?.

11 July 2003

Ulli Lotzmann recently discovered - on his drawing board - a depiction of Neil Armstrong's immortal greeting, "Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky", at the end of the Apollo 11 EVA. According to the widely-known urban myth, Neil was thinking of a former neighbor in Wapakoneta, Ohio. This story is simply not true. Neil was actually thinking of his favorite Canadian rock band, Mr. Gorsky. The accompanying photo, taken at Glen Isle on 6 July 2003, shows (left to right) band members Michael Craig, Rod McNeil, and Ken Glover.

10 April 2003

At 133:15:25, on the way to Halo Crater, Pete Conrad took a picture of Al Bean, who promptly returned the favor. Pete's picture of Al is AS12-49- 7281 and Al's picture of Pete is AS12-48- 7071. Each of the pictures shows the photographer reflected in the visor of the subject and Harald Kucharek has had some fun with the images. As Harald says, "take care not to get lost in the recursion." Hint: Reflected images are left-right reversed.

26 March 2003

Oliver Summa writes, "In my quest for a decent (computer screen) background picture I began playing around with pixels - and voila! Here's the scenery of Taurus-Littrow after departure of the astronauts!". Oliver used Jack Schmitt's photo AS17-134-20506 to create this visualization. Note the plume deflectors in the original. Although Oliver was careful to remove Gene from the photo - he is working at the CDR's seat in the original - there is a vital clue that gives the game away. Note the position of the flag in the original. As can be determined from Jack's photo AS17-143-21948 taken out the window after EVA-3, it is pointing east. However, at liftoff, the ascent engine exhaust put enough force on the flag to make it point, like a weathervane, directly away from the source of the wind. As can be seen in the post-launch video at about 188:04:30, the flag ended up pointing north, directly away from the descent stage.

18 February 2003

A new Ulli Lotzmann acrylic study shows Al Bean examining a critical page in his cuff checklist.

17 February 2003

Check out Ulli Lotzmann's Apollo Sketchbook.

Happy 2003

A New Year's Wish from Ulli Lotzmann.

 

Al Shepard, Softball Star - Not!

Ernie Reyes provides this authentic photo from a 1970 game in which Reyes managed the 'astro' team that included the A14 Prime and Back-up crews. Golf was Shepard's game. Scan by Ulli Lotzmann.

 

Lunar Grand Prix

Simon Plumpton provides a finishing-line photo from the first Lunar Grand Prix. Note that the vehicle of apparent winner, Captain Eugene A. Cernan, U.S. Navy, appears not to be fully equipped and protests from the other two entries are expected. Note the obvious despair of riding mechanic Col. James B. Irwin on the two-man U.S. Air Force Team.
Plumpton writes "I took the main picture of Gene and the rover from 17, added Dave and Jim from a training shot running in second (Jim has his hands to his head as he realises Gene has won!) and the pic of John is taken from the original Grand Prix on 16 and depicts him spinning off at the final straight!"

 

Properly Equipped LRV

Ulli Lotzmann provides an Ernie Reyes concept, which is an elaboration of a Boeing/MSFC drawing. See the discussion following 120:31:33 for additional information.

 

Apollo 17B

A little known Apollo 'G' mission, long in the planning, was recently conducted in the wilds of Scotland by the Apollo 17-B crew, shown here at Glasgow Base as they prepare for an EVA. The crewmembers are David Woods (left), Ken Glover (center), and David Harland (right). Mission photo by Anne Woods.

 

Moonwalkers with Labels

Michael Saelz has created a version of Bob Farwell's Moonwalkers with the names and birthdates added. 22 April 2002

 

Where is Ed?

Dave Byrne assembled Al Shepard's Station C-Prime pan and realized that Ed Mitchell was nowhere to be seen! Was he hiding? Had he wandered off? Well, actually, he was moving around while Al was taking the pan and, with proper selection of pan frames, it is possible to edit him out of the scene. Here's a different assembly with Ed at the MET. 5 April 2002

 

Moonwalkers

Bob Farwell has created a collage to show all twelve of the Moonwalkers at Taurus-Littrow. Bob writes, "The Moonwalker Collage was the result of many hours of digital editing. It was not a simple matter of finding the right astronaut photo and cut and pasting it into the background - which, by the way, is Apollo 14 photograph AS14-66-9337 with an Apollo 17 LM and an Apollo 11 crescent Earth. Rather than boring the reader with gruesome details, suffice it to say that only 4 of the 12 astronauts are taken directly from their official NASA portraits. The remaining 8 were put together a piece at a time!" 12 July 2001

 

That's One Small Step For 'a' Man

Bill Little has created a WAV file suggesting how Neil's famous words might have sounded with the 'a' included. 13 April 2001.

 

Searching Fra Mauro

Al Shepard and Ed Mitchell had a frustrating time in their search for Cone Crater. During a recent effort to improve the discussion of this EVA, Lennie Waugh uncovered a map of a previously unknown portion of the traverse. 17 November 2000

 

Geology 101 Field Trip

Image created by David Harland ( 182k ). All rights reserved.
"This image is derived from one that I made as a serious, monochrome rendition of Tracy's Rock (0.5Mb), which is at Apollo 17 Station 6 in the valley of Taurus-Littrow. That image is in the Journal, too. It was based on a set of high-definition frames that were supplied by Mike Gentry at NASA Johnson and were scanned by Ron Wells. I downloaded and mosaicked them. By holding that resolution, I produced an enormous image; but scrolling across it is half the fun!"

"I saw that Jack Schmitt wasn't in frame, so I went to another frame, which was only 30-cm wide, in which he was present, and borrowed him. But he was the wrong scale, and he didn't blow up all that well; he looked a little fuzzy when I pasted him in, so I deleted him and went to bed in disgust, because without someone in the frame to provide a sense of scale, that block could be any size."

"Inspiration struck, however. Expanding Jack hadn't worked, but shrinking him might, so I leapt out of bed and hunted for another frame of that scene, with him in; but I hadn't downloaded much Apollo 17. I'd been working on Apollo 15 and 16, and was only just starting reading up on 17, so I didn't have that shot on file. As a joke, I stole a picture of Jim Irwin saluting Old Glory on the Plain at Hadley, a high-definition frame which I'd received in the mail a few hours earlier from Kipp Teague, as a swap for sending him the pan of Tracy's Rock, and I shrank him down and stuck him on top of the rock. It was magnificent! So I went back to bed feeling pretty pleased with myself."

"The next day, I took another look. It was still magnificent. So I borrowed a few more shots of those intrepid moonwalkers Dave, Jim, John and Charlie, and put them in too. It was truly hilarious! Over the last week or so, I've added some of Al (Shepard), Ed and Buzz. I belatedly sought out a few of Gene and Jack and put them in. I'll see about Pete and Al, and might even put in their Surveyor. There wasn't a Neil available, however; so, although he was the first to tread the lunar dust, he isn't represented here, but this is probably for the better because he never did like crowds."

"What started as an exercise in documentation (producing the serious pan), spun-off a nice bit of fun, but there's a serious side to this image, and that's the fact that it is an exceedingly good illustration of the difficulty of judging distance on the lunar surface. In the real pan, I had no difficulty in accepting that the valley is 10 km wide, and that the South Massif is 2,500 meters high. I would never have guessed that from looking at the picture, but I can accept it without it jarring. That's the problem that the guys faced. Only, in their case, there was nobody to tell them how far away things are. Of course, they knew from their maps that the valley was that wide, and that the massif was that high. But how large are those craters out there? And, hence, how far away are they? In fact, the big crater behind the rock is Henry, and it's a kilometer or so off. I know that because I have the map, too. But I couldn't have said without it. By placing a little Jack Schmitt on its rim (borrowed from a pan at Camelot, where he was caught running back to the Rover), that crater suddenly becomes a whole lot closer, and a lot smaller. In the real world, if he'd really been on the rim, he'd have been no more than a pixel high."

"Another point that is illustrated in this imaginary scene is that it seems remarkable that the lighting is so consistent. But think about it...all the missions landed at the same local time, so I didn't have too much trouble mixing and matching them. Where necessary, I reversed the images so that astronauts were lit from the right side; and, if they still looked out of place I added shadows, and, of course, I drew in the shadows on the ground too. It took a hell of a lot of work, so it wasn't an easy mosaic to make up. It was worth it though! What is truly amazing is that nobody's ever done it before."

David Harland
4 July 1998

 

Sand Box

Toonseman Glover is shown with his friend, John Young. Photo composite by David Harland.

 

Apollo 11 Plaque Unveiling

Mauro Freschi has provided a B&W TV frame showing Neil unveiling the landing-strut plaque; and also a colorized version.

 

Apollo 11 Double Vision

Mauro Freschi has provided a previously unknown Apollo 11 photos showing twin astronauts.

 

Coloring the Moon

Before Kipp Teague supplied a high-resolution scan of a good color print of AS11-40- 5886, which shows Neil Armstrong at the MESA, Mauro Freschi produced a colorized version of a high-resolution scan of a good black & white print done by Ron Wells.

 

The Real Secret of Apollo 12

David Harland (tongue firmly in cheek) has released a previously unknown Apollo 12 picture of Al Bean. The picture was taken by Pete Conrad, whose reflection is clearly visible in the center of Al's faceplate. Note, however, the reflection of a third astronaut, presumably Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon. What is amazing about this picture is the apparent fact that the Apollo 12 crew was able to keep secret Gordon's presence on the lunar surface for so long a time. The picture is similar to AS12-49-7278.

 

Unfinished Business

Adam Bootle sends this picture of Pete Conrad and Al Bean posing next to Surveyor III. Adam writes "I was inspired by Alan Bean's drawing 'The photo we never took' in his book 'Apollo: An Eyewitness Account' (page 114). I thought it was such a shame that they couldn't find the camera self-timer that they had smuggled on board, that I would try to finish the job for them. I think the picture they never took would have done more than get on the cover of LIFE magazine, it probably would have been on of the most printed Apollo pictures along with the 'Aldrin visor' picture. Just think, maybe NASA would have made a self-timer part of the standard kit!"

 

An Air Force Salute

Adam Bootle sends this picture of Dave Scott (right) and Jim Irwin (left) saluting for the camera. Scott and Irwin, part of an all-Air-Force crew, served on the Apollo 12 backup crew and, although they may not have known about the illicit self-timer, this composite would have been a natural.

 

Super Patch

Mauro Freschi has produced a glorious patch for the entire Apollo program.

 

Shooting the Rapids

Matt Gibbons has produced a fun treatment of a Hadley Rille pan that he calls Shooting the Rapids

 

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