1989 Reflection on Neil Armstrong

I wrote this for The Richmond News Leader on the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

buy modafinil online reddit THE RICHMOND NEWS LEADER

http://kirstincronn-mills.com/?p=454 Copyright (c) 1989, Richmond Times-Dispatch

FIRST MAN ON MOON? PHOTO PROOF SLIM

Why is there no photograph taken on the moon of the first man to walk on the moon?

The accompanying photograph is probably the best known from the historic landing which took place 20 years ago today.  Although many assume it to be of Neil Armstrong, it in fact shows the second man on the moon, Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr.

It also happens to be the best photograph the world has of the first man on the moon’s surface.  The thin white image in the very center of Aldrin’s faceplate is the photographer, Neil Armstrong.  We almost have better images of Columbus in the New World.

Of the Apollo 11 mission’s 1,340 still photographs, the only other images of Armstrong on the moon are similar reflections.

NASA and the astronauts became aware of this historic oversight only after their return to earth.  It appears that since Armstrong was first out of Eagle, the lunar module, he took the camera with him.

The astronauts aboard Apollo 11 went to the moon with a well-stocked still photo inventory which consisted of three Hasselblad 500ELs.  Two were virtually identical to earthbound ELs.  The modifications for space included very little more than stripping the black bodies of their leather coverings and providing oversize controls for gloved hands.

The third EL was significantly modified to become the 500EL Data Camera. This is the so-called Moon Camera.

It differs from the others by the addition of a Reseau plate – a specially engraved and calibrated glass sheet — at the film plane. Photographs taken with this camera are readily identified by the very fine cross hairs on the image.  These marks helped in making topographical calculations.

The silver-finished DC was fitted with a specially made distortion-free 60mm f/5.6 Zeiss Biogon lens.  The lens carried an easily detached and operated polarizing filter.

Each of the other ELs had its own minimally modified 80mm f/2.8 Zeiss Planar normal lenses.  A 250mm f/5.6 Zeiss Sonnar was the only other lens carried.

Each camera had a complement of three film magazines, one of which could accommodate either 160 color exposures or 200 black-and-white frames.  The Kodak films were thin-base/thin emulsion 70mm-wide with double perforations.

One of the standard ELs, its 80mm lens, the 250mm lens and its three magazines stayed aboard the command module Columbia for use by its pilot, Michael Collins, as he continued to orbit the moon.

The rest of the still camera equipment was put aboard Eagle for the trip to the moon’s surface.

Very shortly after taking the “one giant leap for mankind” and several smaller ones for himself to see if he would sink into the surface, Armstrong had Aldrin lower the camera to him.

“I’ll step out and take some of my first pictures here,” Armstrong said after moving away from Eagle.  The controller in Houston broke in to remind him to pick up the extremely important contingency sample of lunar rocks.  If the moon men had to terminate their stay abruptly, they could still return home with a piece of the cheese.

Armstrong, however, despite the years of training and the line-by-line, step-by-step scenario of the voyage, put first things first and told Houston to wait.  “Rog. I’m going to get to that just as soon as I finish these picture series.”

Which would you rather have from your once-in-a-lifetime trip, a handful of rocks or some pictures?

Fifteen minutes later, Aldrin joined him on the surface. His exit from Eagle and first steps were documented by Armstrong, but they weren’t the first steps on the moon.

A major event was the planting of the American flag which proved more difficult than anyone had expected.  After it was precariously erected, Armstrong shot a portrait of Aldrin saluting it.

Just as the two astronauts were about to change places and Armstrong give the camera over to Aldrin for his portrait, then-President Richard M. Nixon phoned from extremely long-distance.  Aldrin claims he was forgotten during the ensuing conversation between Armstrong and the president.  Apparently, so was the photograph.

After more than two hours on the moon’s surface, the astronauts reboarded Eagle to rest and clean house before launching themselves up to the waiting Columbia.  When done with their cleaning, they put out the first of what became six piles of lunar trash left by moon-walking astronauts.

Included in that trash were the two Hasselblads.  The magazines with their historic images were returned to earth.

I hope it is not too long before mankind regains what it had for an extraordinary period two decades ago.  I’d like to see some of that “trash” in the Smithsonian.

But none of us will ever see the picture not taken.