We’ve all suffered the following: There’s a killer full moon up in the sky – perhaps it’s a supermoon just above the horizon – and we try to snap a picture of it. We do so, only to find that the resulting image does not represent the grandeur of what we can see with our naked eyes. The Moon “on film” will be much smaller than what we see on our own.
So it goes. Our cameras have let us down somehow. They are unable to capture what our eyes can see and appreciate.
The “Earthrise” photographs from the supposed Apollo manned moon missions are no different. What we see in NASA-published photos are not what the supposed astronauts saw with their naked eyes. They are only what the supposed cameras on or near the lunar surface were able to capture and render on film.
As such, we should probably take all of NASA’s Apollo images with a grain of salt. Perhaps any irregularities can be explained away by photography aberrations.
Then again . . . perhaps not.
Size Matters
Here’s something to ponder:
If you’re looking up into the sky from the surface of the Earth, day or night, you might catch a glimpse of the Moon. The size of the Moon disk is, curiously, the exact same size as the Sun disk (ignoring atmospheric distortions such as the above-mentioned supermoon occurrences). But let’s leave that Moon-Sun relative size curiosity aside for the moment as a mere coincidence. Instead let’s just think about the typically observed size of the Moon, as viewed from the Earth’s surface.
The average angular diameter of the Moon (and Sun), as seen from the Earth, is about 31 arcminutes. That means that the disk of the Moon (and Sun) can both be perfectly obscured by a dime-sized coin, held at arms’ length away from your face.
Now, let’s assume we are standing on the surface of the Moon. We look up and see the Earth, which is supposedly about 4 times the diameter of the Moon. It’s logical to expect that the Earth, when viewed from the lunar surface, would appear about 4x larger than the Moon when viewed from the Earth’s surface. Meaning: If you were a Moon creature, you would see a very prominent, huge Earth in your “sky” and a dime-sized coin held in hand (or flipper or claw or whatever) would be too small to obscure it.
But that’s not what NASA shows us in the lunar photography from their famed Apollo missions. Instead, NASA shows us images – such as the following ones – that show a surprisingly small Earth up in the lunar “sky.”
The left image was supposedly taken aboard Apollo 8 by astronaut, Bill Anders, while orbiting the Moon. The middle image (AS11-44-6552) and right image (AS11-44-6642) were supposedly taken by Apollo 11.
One might logically ask the following:
Why does the Earth appear so small in these photographs? This is certainly not the size of the Earth that we would expect to see with our eyes from a vantage near the moon.
Also: Why does the Earth appear to be different sizes in these three images? Any location near the Moon is, for all practical purposes, the same (huge) distance from Earth, so, logically, the Earth should appear to be the same size in all these images.
Are these just optical / photographic aberrations? Or is this evidence that such photographs are somehow doctored?
To answer these questions, we’ll have to do some math . . .
Nerd Alert
The difficulty in performing calculations on this type of thing is establishing the initial assumptions. For example, we only know what They tell us about the diameter of the Earth and Moon, and the distance between them, and so on. So, the best we can do is trust our instincts (that the Earth ought to look different when viewed from the Moon if the accepted data are correct) and look for inconsistencies in the officially reported numbers.
Let’s scrutinize the above left image, as one example, along with some officially accepted information:
- NASA describes the above left image from Apollo 8 as follows: “The lunar horizon is approximately 780 km from the spacecraft. Width of the photographed area at the horizon is about 175 km (109 miles). On the Earth 386,000 km (240,000 miles) away, the sunset terminator bisects Africa.”
- The average diameter of the Earth is said to be 7,918 miles. The average diameter of the Moon is said to be 2,159 miles. The Moon’s average distance from Earth is said to be 238,000 miles.
- Apollo 8 supposedly orbited the Moon in an elliptical orbit of 70-195 miles from the lunar surface. At this orbit height, the visible Moon horizon would be anywhere between 389 – 649 miles away.
- Two 70mm Hasselblad 500EL cameras were reportedly carried aboard Apollo 8. The above left image was said to be gathered by one of these cameras.
- The horizontal field of view for a 70mm focal length lens is 28.8 degrees.
Based on the above information, we can easily find a few inconsistencies:
- The sunset terminator (shadow on the Earth) does not appear to be “bisecting Africa.” The terminator might be bisecting Australia if you can accept that Australia is shaped a little different in NASA photographs than it is on the globe in your public library.
- Apollo 8’s stated orbit heights, NASA’s reported lunar horizon width in the image, and the camera specifications are mutually contradictory. For example, if the orbit heights and imaged lunar horizon are correct, a 125 – 200 mm focal length lens would have been required to capture an image like this.
- The apparent size of the Earth in the image does not match what would be expected with a camera placed 238,000 miles from Earth with any camera lens in the 70 – 200 mm range. Below is how the Earth would appear in the above Apollo 8 image, size-corrected for such lenses (from left to right . . . NASA’s original image; Earth size corrected for a 70 mm lens; Earth size corrected for a 200 mm lens):
For completeness, I’ll also add some quick notes about the other two NASA images from Apollo 11, cited up above (AS11-44-6552 and AS11-44-6642).
These images suffer from similar scrutiny. Apollo 11 also reportedly carried Hasselblad 500EL cameras, identical to the ones used by Apollo 8, albeit with different lenses. AS11-44-6552 and AS11-44-6642 would have therefore been taken with either an 80 mm lens, or a special 250 mm telephoto lens.
If it was an 80 mm lens, the same logic applies as described above for the Apollo 8 image, and the size of the Earth in the images is not correct.
If it was the 250 mm telephoto lens, the size of the Earth in the images is also incorrect – but for different reasons. A telephoto lens is a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. Because of this, telephoto lenses render the opposite effect of wide-angle lenses, wherein the entire composition becomes compressed, such that distant objects appear closer.
With its tiny Earth, NASA image AS11-44-6642, is particularly shoddy. This image supposedly shows the Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage, from the perspective of the Command and Service Modules (CSM) during rendezvous in lunar orbit. The tiny Earth is certainly not what would be rendered by either an 80 mm lens or a telephoto lens of any specification.
Phil’s Two Cents
Interestingly, the Earth would appear much smaller through a camera lens than in any of the published lunar NASA photographs, except the telephoto lens mentioned above. I know that’s a little counter-intuitive because the Earth would appear quite large to the naked eye if we could stand on the Moon and take a gander at it.
But remember the example at the beginning of this article: When we try to take photos of the Moon from Earth, we end up with a much smaller Moon than expected. This is a photographic aberration due to camera lens optics. The same would happen when attempting to photograph the Earth from a vantage on the Moon.
So, in one sense, NASA can be forgiven. Their Apollo-era Earth photographs from the Moon cannot possibly be expected to render what we would see with our own eyes. However, what is unforgivable is this: NASA has certainly tinkered with their images by artificially altering the size of the Earth.
A benign explanation would be that NASA did so in order to give their images more sex appeal, and give us something closer to what an astronaut would see. A conspiratorial explanation would be that all the Apollo images are bogus, and that the historical integrity of the Apollo missions themselves should be called into question.
As I’ve stated previously, I do not believe that humans have ever set foot on the moon. Mainly because the moon is way, way outside Earth’s protective magnetosphere – such that any living organism trying to go there would get cooked to a crisp, like a leftover Denny’s sandwich nuked inside a microwave oven for too long.
NASA’s obvious, provable photographic tinkering does nothing to sway me from that belief.
– “Phil”
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