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Forum:	Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
Topic:	Apollo 11: What Armstrong and Aldrin Saw

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Your Reply: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	[QUOTE]Originally posted by Robert Pearlman: [B]Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera video <BLOCKQUOTE>[i]The only visual record of the historic Apollo 11 landing is from a 16mm time-lapse (6 frames per second) movie camera mounted in Buzz Aldrin's window (right side of Lunar Module Eagle or LM). Due to the small size of the LM windows and the angle at which the movie camera was mounted, what mission commander Neil Armstrong saw as he flew and landed the LM was not recorded. The LROC team [URL=http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1115]reconstructed the last three minutes[/URL] of the landing trajectory (latitude, longitude, orientation, velocity, altitude) using landmark navigation and altitude call outs from the voice recording. From this trajectory information, and high resolution LROC NAC images and topography, we simulated what Armstrong saw in those final minutes as he guided the LM down to the surface of the Moon. As the video begins, Armstrong could see the aim point was on the rocky northeastern flank of West crater (190 meters diameter), causing him to take manual control and fly horizontally, searching for a safe landing spot. At the time, only Armstrong saw the hazard; he was too busy flying the LM to discuss the situation with mission control.[/i]</BLOCKQUOTE> <center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScFJBcLfasQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>[/B][/QUOTE]
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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="sans-serif">T O P I C     R E V I E W</font></CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="sans-serif">Robert Pearlman</FONT></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="sans-serif">Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera video <BLOCKQUOTE><I>The only visual record of the historic Apollo 11 landing is from a 16mm time-lapse (6 frames per second) movie camera mounted in Buzz Aldrin's window (right side of Lunar Module Eagle or LM). Due to the small size of the LM windows and the angle at which the movie camera was mounted, what mission commander Neil Armstrong saw as he flew and landed the LM was not recorded. <P>The LROC team <A HREF="http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1115" TARGET=_blank>reconstructed the last three minutes</A> of the landing trajectory (latitude, longitude, orientation, velocity, altitude) using landmark navigation and altitude call outs from the voice recording. From this trajectory information, and high resolution LROC NAC images and topography, we simulated what Armstrong saw in those final minutes as he guided the LM down to the surface of the Moon. <P>As the video begins, Armstrong could see the aim point was on the rocky northeastern flank of West crater (190 meters diameter), causing him to take manual control and fly horizontally, searching for a safe landing spot. At the time, only Armstrong saw the hazard; he was too busy flying the LM to discuss the situation with mission control.</I></BLOCKQUOTE> <center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScFJBcLfasQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen>

328KF

Very cool! I assume in the simulated image that it’s the descent stage of Eagle, photographed by LRO, casting a shadow on the surface.

Headshot

Fantastic!

Makes Armstrong and Aldrin's feat seem even more amazing.

Altidude

That was perfect timing. Just finished the podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon. It's great seeing the landing after finally understanding the intricacies of what happened.

dsenechal

Very cool video!!

Jurg Bolli

Very well done.

Cozmosis22

Nice video.

Now a question about what we saw as Neil jumped down off the Eagle ladder. Seem to recall that the B&W video image was originally upside down? Haven't seen that mentioned during any of the recent 50th anniversary discussions. It was apparently fixed rather quickly and had something to do with the signal from the deep space antenna in Australia.

Jurg Bolli

On yesterday's broadcast on NASA TV in real time (+50 years) the initial image was upside down, this was fixed very quickly.

Robert Pearlman

If you cue up Apollo 11 in Real Time to the start of the television broadcast, you can hear the backroom discussion leading to the signal being flipped, adding to capcom Bruce McCandless' own observation of the same in his reply to Neil Armstrong.

Cozmosis22

TV image of Armstrong on the ladder was inverted only about 7 seconds.

Found a detailed version of the Eagle landing sequence:

oly

quote:
Originally posted by Cozmosis22:
It was apparently fixed rather quickly and had something to do with the signal from the deep space antenna in Australia.

The black and white slow-scan television camera on the Apollo 11 MESA was installed upside down, as can be seen in this image. Armstrong later removed the camera from the MESA and fitted it to a camera tripod right side up, seen in this image.

While the TV camera was upside-down in the MESA, the pictures were also upside-down. When Armstrong removed the camera to plant it on the lunar surface, the pictures would be the right way up again. A simple technique was employed to invert the images during the scan-conversion process on the Earth. This involved modifying the scan-converter by installing a toggle switch on its front panel. The switch was connected to the deflection coils of the Vidicon camera by means of a relay, which then inverted the picture by the simple expedient of reversing the vertical scans. Richard Holl, who was a Bendix Field Engineering Corporation engineer responsible for television ground support, helped design and implement the inverter switch.

Note: the story about the exploding scan converter at the bottom of this source page is an interesting read.

Space Cadet Carl

I recall before the flight there was some television commentary about the possibility of switching the camera over to the high-resolution 1280 scan line mode for a minute or two. It never happened.

Headshot

Does anyone know if Aldrin has seen this LROC video? If so, did he express any thoughts on it?

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