[meteorite-list] Weird pic...Apollo 14

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 18:11:06 -0600
Message-ID: <004301c726f0$04e37310$a925e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi,

    If you take a look at the thumbnails page for
magazine 67:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a14/Ap14_Mag67.jpg
you will see everything is blue-lit. These guys
are not professional photographers and the
Moon is a hard place to shoot pictures of. In
photo 9384, the Sun is just outside the frame.
Look at 9382, it's all sun flare (also 9367, 9368,
9387, 9388, equally wasted). They tried shooting
into the Sun (with lousy results); they tried
shooting with the Sun behind them and got
black shadows that stretched for yards and
yards (low Sun angle).

    I now disagree with the "official" film defect
explanation; the blue streaks in the sky are an
internal reflection from the Sun which is just
above and to the right of camera. The "blue
light" (not a glow or halo) you note is nothing
but the "blue sunlight" to be seen in every
frame of that magazine.

    Remember, this is just an Earthly (and
expensive) film camera of the 1960's, and the
film used is just high grade 120 film just like
you could buy for your camera, no CCD's,
no narrowband filters, no software -- it's just
a case of "We're going to the Moon; grab
the camera!"

    The color temperature of the film used is
not high enough for the raw sunlight of the
Moon. I would suggest a Wratten 81 series
filter is needed. I would recommend a strong
81 series filter, 81D or even the 81EF, the
so-called "mountain filter." Ever gone up high
in the mountains, shot film, and when you got
the photos back, everything was too blue? It's
the film recording the UV light that you can't
see; an 81EF will fix that. Imagine there's
much more UV light on the Moon than on
the Earth? (Well, yeah...)

    In photo 67-9384, they got a decent shot by
shooting a scene that was mostly in shadow
with increased exposure time (notice how
dark the regolith is compared to the other
shots). The longer exposure time is likely
what allowed that faint internal reflection to
be recorded. This sort of thing happens with
film cameras all the time.

    You'll notice that it isn't "a" streak; it's two
sets of multiple streaks, one brighter and one
fainter. The fainter one is identical to the brighter
one (at least in the parts we can make out) and
at a slightly different angle. This is characteristic
of internal reflections in a multi-element lens,
with each element showing the reflection, although
each element (because of differing refractivity)
positions it differently.

    And lastly, the streaks are exactly one hue
of blue, in varying intensity but all the same
color, formed out of one narrow refracted
hue, an optical defect, not an object. And it's
exactly where a reflection would be cast by
the low Sun.

    If we take the other tack, and say the blue
streaks are real, we have the problem that they
are diffuse. The camera is in focus out to infinity,
so they would have to be diffuse object, more
like a vapor or gasses, not a sharply defined
dense physical object.

    If they were vapor reflecting sunlight
they would have a bright spot or area since
sunlight in a vacuum is not dispersed in all
directions like it is inside an atmosphere; they
don't have a specular refection, in other words.

    If it is a vapor, even one emitted by a moving
object, it would have expanded in every direction
instantly in a vacuum, regardless of motion or the
lack of it. No way to form a "streak" or to hold
it together.

    You may recall seeing the video of the ascent
stage of the LM taking off, engines blazing. On
Earth, in an atmosphere, the firing of a hypergolic
fuel rocket would produce huge bright billowing
clouds of exhaust. In the video, there is nothing
to be seen, no light, no smoke, just an invisible
rush of gas in every direction, like a unseen wind.
Nothing is visible, except small objects on the
ground blowing away.

    At any rate, I really don't think you got a hot
interplanetary mystery here. Keep looking, though,
and let me know if you discover signs of a town of
cryoarthropods on the banks of a methane river
on Titan.

    Just kidding about those cryoarthropods... mostly.


Sterling K. Webb
---------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: kevin decker
To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 6:03 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Weird pic...Apollo 14


Hello,Anybody here care to help me figure out what's in this Photo in the
Apollo 14 Archives?..I'm stumped..:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a14/AS14-67-9384HR.jpg Thanks..Kevin...:)
Received on Sat 23 Dec 2006 07:11:06 PM PST