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Old 18-05-2008, 23:16
LibertyBell7
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The other bit of creative licence was the sequential swinging away of the gantrys at launch.
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Old 18-05-2008, 23:28
HenryGarten
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Did you spot the deliberate mistake near the beginning?

While Armstrong/Aldrin/Collins are at the Moon, the other astronauts are having a party. Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is out in the garden looking up at the Moon, which is almost 'full'.
In reality, when Armstrong et-al were there, the Moon was only a crescent.

Apparantly, the film-makers deliberately had an almost full Moon for that shot, because if you ask people old enough to remember Armstrong's first Moonwalk, they almost always think they remember the Moon as being full (or pretty close to full)
Andrew Smith also mentions this phenomenon in his book 'MoonDust'.
Personally, I think people must have been looking at the Moon in wonder, AFTER the landing, and that's the image they remember and assosciate with the landing.
(It would be 'full' about a week after Armstrong and colleagues got home)
Andrew Smith on page 20 of his book describes the moon as "a big silver full Moon". Not sure if he mentions it anywhere else but his memory was clearly mistaken.

I do remember looking at the moon on the night of Saturday 19th July 1969 and it was a crescent as it was for most of the Apollo landings. Apollo 12 had the largest moon phase as it was the most westerly landing on the face of the moon. All the landings were arranged so that the sun was quite low in the moon sky. I presume that was to reduce the need for cooling the spacesuits.
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Old 18-05-2008, 23:29
HenryGarten
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There's a 4 page article about it in the June issue of 'Astronomy Now' magazine.
Thank you. I guess there will be articles in all the major astronomical magazines.
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Old 18-05-2008, 23:31
LibertyBell7
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Andrew Smith on page 20 of his book describes the moon as "a big silver full Moon". Not sure if he mentions it anywhere else but his memory was clearly mistaken.

I do remember looking at the moon on the night of Saturday 19th July 1969 and it was a crescent as it was for most of the Apollo landings. Apollo 12 had the largest moon phase as it was the most westerly landing on the face of the moon. All the landings were arranged so that the sun was quite low in the moon sky. I presume that was to reduce the need for cooling the spacesuits.
As previously mentioned he does indeed talk about this full moon false memory syndrome.
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Old 18-05-2008, 23:34
Carlos_dfc
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Andrew Smith on page 20 of his book describes the moon as "a big silver full Moon". Not sure if he mentions it anywhere else but his memory was clearly mistaken.
Yep - and he mentions it later in the book too, while talking to someone else - then comments on the fact that is was really a crescent - and it being quite common to mistakenly remember it as 'full'
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Old 18-05-2008, 23:34
HenryGarten
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As previously mentioned he does indeed talk about this full moon false memory syndrome.
Well I got bored with his book and never read it to the finish.
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Old 20-05-2008, 16:41
Carlos_dfc
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Thank you. I guess there will be articles in all the major astronomical magazines.
Confirmed

Just picked up the June edition of 'Sky at Night' mag - there's a Tunguska article in there too.

Haven't read the S@N article yet, but the Astronomy Now article concentrated quite a bit on lake Cheko (8 miles NW of the blast's epicentre), and conjecture as to whether or not it was created by the impact.

Lake Cheko doesn't appear on any maps that pre-date the blast, but that in itself doesn't mean a lot when talking about maps of a remote area, made before 1908.
It is NW of 'ground zero' (the explosion actually occurred between 5 and 10 miles altitude), and the projected trajectory of the meteor was NW.
The lake is oval though - whereas meteor craters are usually circular, unless the meteor comes in at a VERY shallow angle.

A group of Italian scientists have been up there last year, and are returning soon to make further tests - Reading between the lines, it appears that the Italians seem to think that despite the anomalous shape of Lake cheko, it may well have been excavated by material that continued on North-westerly, after the blast - or maybe that the meteor broke up before the main blast, and some fragments may have excavated Lake Cheko.
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Old 20-05-2008, 17:36
Ricardodaforce
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Well I got bored with his book and never read it to the finish.
I had the same problem. Then a while later I found it, decided to give it another go and enjoyed it.

I'm still waiting on recommendations for books about Mercury and Gemini!
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Old 20-05-2008, 19:00
HenryGarten
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Confirmed

Just picked up the June edition of 'Sky at Night' mag - there's a Tunguska article in there too.

Haven't read the S@N article yet, but the Astronomy Now article concentrated quite a bit on lake Cheko (8 miles NW of the blast's epicentre), and conjecture as to whether or not it was created by the impact.

Lake Cheko doesn't appear on any maps that pre-date the blast, but that in itself doesn't mean a lot when talking about maps of a remote area, made before 1908.
It is NW of 'ground zero' (the explosion actually occurred between 5 and 10 miles altitude), and the projected trajectory of the meteor was NW.
The lake is oval though - whereas meteor craters are usually circular, unless the meteor comes in at a VERY shallow angle.

A group of Italian scientists have been up there last year, and are returning soon to make further tests - Reading between the lines, it appears that the Italians seem to think that despite the anomalous shape of Lake cheko, it may well have been excavated by material that continued on North-westerly, after the blast - or maybe that the meteor broke up before the main blast, and some fragments may have excavated Lake Cheko.
Look out for the articles stating that if it had happened hours earlier/later (they are never too sure) it would have wiped out St Peterburgh. Well I guess if it had been hours earlier or later it would have missed the earth completely.
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Old 20-05-2008, 19:56
Ricardodaforce
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Story here.
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Old 20-05-2008, 20:21
Carlos_dfc
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Look out for the articles stating that if it had happened hours earlier/later (they are never too sure) it would have wiped out St Peterburgh. Well I guess if it had been hours earlier or later it would have missed the earth completely.
Yep, the AN article reckoned 4hrs 45mins - but I suppose using the same logic, (different timing) you could apply that to just about any point at 60° North, incl Stockholm and Oslo.
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Old 24-05-2008, 13:41
HenryGarten
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The Phoenix spacecraft is due to land on Mars in the very early hours of Monday our time.
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Old 24-05-2008, 13:52
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Originally Posted by ;23943081
The Phoenix spacecraft is due to land on Mars in the very early hours of Monday our time.
Ah, HenryGarten, but will it end up being The Turkey spacecraft and making a little crater of its own a la Beagle II? This mission essentially takes off from where the ill-fated Polar Lander ended its short life unexpectedly.

This time, NASA's using retrorockets to slow things down rather than the blown-up Tesco bag system that they've recently been using to land probes. I hope it succeeds and gives us information about soil composition and permafrost ice content but we'll have to wait and see. Something like two-thirds of all Mars missions have ended in failure.

By the way, I can highly recommend Laurence Bergreen's The Quest for Mars about the inside story of recent American Mars explorations and, best of all, it's only 99p (hardback) from my local The Works bookstore.
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Old 24-05-2008, 16:09
KJ44
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The Phoenix spacecraft is due to land on Mars in the very early hours of Monday our time.
I'm contemplating staying up to witness it live (give or take 15 minutes lightspeed lag), it being a Bank Holiday on Monday.
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Old 26-05-2008, 08:37
Ricardodaforce
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Wow a SUCCESSFUL mission to mars.
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Old 26-05-2008, 19:52
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At last - success! The pictures from Phoenix have revealed a cold, dusty and stony ochre plain. It seems from the pictures that cycles of freezing and thawing have been going on to give the distinctive polygonal structures that we also see in Earth's arctic (see here at http://www.athropolis.com/arctic-fac...t-polygons.htm).

In a few months' time, poor old Phoenix will be frozen and buried under a layer of ice and I hope the mission yields some useful results.
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Old 26-05-2008, 19:56
Ricardodaforce
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Heads up everyone. In the Shadows of the Moon is on CH4 next weekend.
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Old 26-05-2008, 23:21
HenryGarten
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Pictures of the analemma of the sun are very rare....the first ever being made in 1979. Now someone seems to have doubled the quantity.

See http://perseus.gr/Astro-Solar-Analemma.htm
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Old 28-05-2008, 16:42
Mandark
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Proposed European manned space module. It's based on the Euro space truck. France, Italy and Germany want in. I think we'll join eventually since we've signed up to the Euro astronaut training programme and our hi-tech industries think there's lots of economic benefits from being part of the consortium.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7419793.stm
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Old 30-05-2008, 14:24
Ricardodaforce
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Reminder:
In the Shadows of the Moon is on CH4 tomorrow night.
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Old 31-05-2008, 17:31
NII 88
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Reminder:
In the Shadows of the Moon is on CH4 tomorrow night.
So there is a choice between watching a Simon Cowell "talent" contest, or an inspiring talking-head retrospective of mankinds greatest tecnological achievement?

Although Apollo 11 had 500,000,000 million TV viewers 39 years ago I am pretty sure Mr Cowell will be winning the ratings tonight.
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Old 31-05-2008, 19:24
afcbfan
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...and after that you can watch the shuttle launch. Nice bit of scheduling
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Old 31-05-2008, 20:06
HenryGarten
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C4 now. What became of the astronauts who went to the moon.
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Old 01-06-2008, 12:56
Mandark
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Hmm... missed it. Was it interesting? I've heard of the stories of depression
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Old 01-06-2008, 20:59
Ricardodaforce
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Hmm... missed it. Was it interesting? I've heard of the stories of depression

For All Mankind is a better one.
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