Apollo 11 Lunar landing - 40th aniversary

On 2009-07-15 04:38:41 -0700, "J. Clarke" said:

Walter Banks wrote:
The real reason was Ansel's camera was as big as the LEM and Ansel
insisted that he wanted to bring his camera back.

Been interesting if Ansel had consulted though and they'd come up with a
super lightweight 8x10 camera for the purpose.

I understand Adams was using Hasselblads in the the 60's, so he would
probably chosen to travel light with a NASA provided custom Hassy.




--
Regards,

Savageduck

Savageduck wrote:

Been interesting if Ansel had consulted though and they'd come up with a
super lightweight 8x10 camera for the purpose.

I understand Adams was using Hasselblads in the the 60's, so he would
probably chosen to travel light with a NASA provided custom Hassy.

I still cringe thinking about the Hasselblads that NASA used as disposable
cameras to be tossed out like last week's garbage. At the time thinking
some adventurer would return to retrieve it for a museum some time.

Sure didn't expect the 40 years gap

w..

Walter Banks wrote:
Savageduck wrote:

Been interesting if Ansel had consulted though and they'd come up
with a super lightweight 8x10 camera for the purpose.

I understand Adams was using Hasselblads in the the 60's, so he would
probably chosen to travel light with a NASA provided custom Hassy.

I still cringe thinking about the Hasselblads that NASA used as
disposable cameras to be tossed out like last week's garbage. At the
time thinking some adventurer would return to retrieve it for a
museum some time.

Sure didn't expect the 40 years gap

Considering the cost of a Moon shot the value of those cameras was peanuts.
And every pound of Hasselblad returned from the Moon was a pound of rocks
that couldn't be. They also left three hand-built custom-made electric cars
there, each of which was worth considerably more than a Hasselblad. Not to
mention the custom-made lightweight video cameras.

Walter Banks wrote:

Savageduck wrote:

Been interesting if Ansel had consulted though and they'd come up with a
super lightweight 8x10 camera for the purpose.
I understand Adams was using Hasselblads in the the 60's, so he would
probably chosen to travel light with a NASA provided custom Hassy.

I still cringe thinking about the Hasselblads that NASA used as disposable
cameras to be tossed out like last week's garbage.

Even with the Hassy mods to the cameras, these were but a spec of dust
in the budget. Fuel/weight consideration even made the lunar module
itself half expendable as well as the "rovers" used on the last few
missions.

A chunk of stone from the moon was 10^6 x more valuable than those
hassy's. And you can touch a piece of moon rock at the Smithsonian in
DC (and other places I guess). Hasselblad's are everywhere for very
reasonable prices.

While in UT a few years ago I was shooting a 500 (C/M) and a fellow
drags his wife over all excited: "Look honey! That's the camera that
went to the moon!!!!" My explanations that the one that went to the
moon was heavily modified went unheard by him (and 10x less by his wife
who was not at all impressed...).

Alan Browne wrote:

Walter Banks wrote:

Savageduck wrote:

Been interesting if Ansel had consulted though and they'd come up with a
super lightweight 8x10 camera for the purpose.
I understand Adams was using Hasselblads in the the 60's, so he would
probably chosen to travel light with a NASA provided custom Hassy.

I still cringe thinking about the Hasselblads that NASA used as disposable
cameras to be tossed out like last week's garbage.

Even with the Hassy mods to the cameras, these were but a spec of dust
in the budget. Fuel/weight consideration even made the lunar module
itself half expendable as well as the "rovers" used on the last few
missions.

A chunk of stone from the moon was 10^6 x more valuable than those
hassy's. And you can touch a piece of moon rock at the Smithsonian in
DC (and other places I guess). Hasselblad's are everywhere for very
reasonable prices.

The economics are clear. 300 feet of rocket left and maybe 10 feet
of it returned.

I have seen and touched the moon rock at the Smithsonian.

A friend of mine had the privilege of bring back one of the rock samples
to Canada for study (maybe 20 grams or so) and flying back tried to
decide how it should be reported to customs. After reviewing all her
options on place of origin, value and all the other difficult tariff questions
customs traditionally ask, she chose to not declare the sample and just
smuggle it in her briefcase.

w..

Walter Banks wrote:

Alan Browne wrote:

Walter Banks wrote:
Savageduck wrote:

Been interesting if Ansel had consulted though and they'd come up with a
super lightweight 8x10 camera for the purpose.
I understand Adams was using Hasselblads in the the 60's, so he would
probably chosen to travel light with a NASA provided custom Hassy.
I still cringe thinking about the Hasselblads that NASA used as disposable
cameras to be tossed out like last week's garbage.
Even with the Hassy mods to the cameras, these were but a spec of dust
in the budget. Fuel/weight consideration even made the lunar module
itself half expendable as well as the "rovers" used on the last few
missions.

A chunk of stone from the moon was 10^6 x more valuable than those
hassy's. And you can touch a piece of moon rock at the Smithsonian in
DC (and other places I guess). Hasselblad's are everywhere for very
reasonable prices.

The economics are clear. 300 feet of rocket left and maybe 10 feet
of it returned.

I have seen and touched the moon rock at the Smithsonian.

We've indirectly touched each other then. So, any infections I need to
know about? Want to know mine?


A friend of mine had the privilege of bring back one of the rock samples
to Canada for study (maybe 20 grams or so) and flying back tried to
decide how it should be reported to customs. After reviewing all her
options on place of origin, value and all the other difficult tariff questions
customs traditionally ask, she chose to not declare the sample and just
smuggle it in her briefcase.

Wise move. US Customs does not recognize Apollo.

Walter Banks wrote:
Savageduck wrote:

Been interesting if Ansel had consulted though and they'd come up with a
super lightweight 8x10 camera for the purpose.

I understand Adams was using Hasselblads in the the 60's, so he would
probably chosen to travel light with a NASA provided custom Hassy.

I still cringe thinking about the Hasselblads that NASA used as disposable
cameras to be tossed out like last week's garbage. At the time thinking
some adventurer would return to retrieve it for a museum some time.

They're still there waiting for you to go and pick them up. Not
nearly as vauable as the Apollo 11 flag that they left, though.

:-)

--
Ray Fischer

"Walter Banks" wrote:
Savageduck wrote:

Been interesting if Ansel had consulted though and they'd come up with
a
super lightweight 8x10 camera for the purpose.

I understand Adams was using Hasselblads in the the 60's, so he would
probably chosen to travel light with a NASA provided custom Hassy.

I still cringe thinking about the Hasselblads that NASA used as disposable
cameras to be tossed out like last week's garbage. At the time thinking
some adventurer would return to retrieve it for a museum some time.

Sure didn't expect the 40 years gap

I doubt that we'll be back on the moon any time soon.

In the meantime, used Hasselblads are pretty cheap here on earth. US$1000 or
so will get you a nice one from KEH. Unfortunately, the lenses other than
the 80/2.8 are still astronomically pricey.

--
David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Alan Browne wrote:

Photos by (and of) their modified Hasselblad cameras.
Not immune to flare!


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html...n-landing-hass
elblad-photos/index.html?ref=science

Nice images, but I watch "The Big Picture" news photo feed 3 times a
week (MWF) and they often have fabulous images. Today they did a
historic "Remembering Apollo 11" set. Excellent stuff at:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200...apollo_11.html

And I got to add a personal touch. I sent this email out to some
personal friends earlier tonight, many of which have known me for the
bulk of the past 40 years.

I have been a software developer for most of the past 37 years, but
started as a physics major in college. I have clipped the portion of
the email that pointed people to this site:

/brag

When looking at it, go to picture 29. See that "Laser Ranging
Retroflector"? That was my first professional job! I designed that
mirror as a Freshman working for NASA at University of Maryland. I was
a physics major back then, and convinced the professor that had the
contract that I was the only student that could accomplish his magic
feat.

This is a specially designed mirror that reflects the light back in the
direction of the incident light even if the mirror is up to 40 degrees
off-center. Think of a normal mirror. Shine a laser at it, and unless
the mirror is dead-straight, the returning light will return at an
angle. With the moon being 250,000 miles away, even the slightest tilt
would mean a normal mirror would bounce the returning beam so wide it
would miss the earth entirely. With my magic design, any telescope on
earth can shine a (very powerful) laser on the moon, and the return beam
will come back right down the throat of the sending telescope.

Using that mirror, they have measured the distance to the moon to within
1 cm (1/2 inch). After the first 30 years of measurements, they found
the moon is actually about 30 feet from where it should be... That fact
has been folded back into string theory and is considered current
evidence to support that gravity is actually an extra-dimensional force.
That in turn, was a significant extra push to get the Large Hadron
Collider project in Europe going, which is hoped will finally prove
multi-dimensions within the next few years.

By the way, there was a science show last year (can't remember which
one...) that actually had the reporters go to an observatory and watch
the measurements being made. The mirror is still in use today.

Not very many of my projects are still in use after 40 years... :-)


/brag?


--
- Burt Johnson
MindStorm, Inc.
http://www.mindstorm-inc.com/software.html

alt.photography- removed

Burt Johnson wrote:

Snipped bits out

By the way, there was a science show last year (can't remember which
one...) that actually had the reporters go to an observatory and watch
the measurements being made. The mirror is still in use today.

Not very many of my projects are still in use after 40 years... :-)


/brag?

This is the best brag I've ever read on usenet. Congratulations!

--
John McWilliams