posted 07-21-2005 08:54 AM            

Stan Lebrow, leader of the team, ran the show that featured many of the team's managers and a nice slide and video presentation of the project. At times, the speakers got quite emotional about their participation in this historic untertaking.

The highlight of the night was when he fired up an original flown Apollo b&w camera that was hooked up to a 60's era monitor for a demo. This camera was almost 40 years old, had all original parts (tubes and all!), and had been on display at the museum for many years. They dimmed the lights, turned it on, and after some adjustments to the monitor, proudly showed us an image of Aldrin coming down the ladder that was projected on the big screen by more modern equipment. The interesting thing was when they dimmed the image of Aldrin down to where we could not see it, the low light capability of the camera still allowed us to see the picture on the monitor. Lebrow even stepped into the view of the camera to show it was indeed a live image, waving his hand in that familiar ghost-like movement. It may well be the last time this camera is ever powered.

My uncle had worked on this team, and many years ago at his house, he went digging through his desk drawer to find 2 small lucite cubes that he gave me. One had a bolt in it, and was inscribed GT-6 with the date. It was from the radar transponder removed from 6 upon it's return to Westinghouse. The other was a small curved plastic fragment, part of a camera that flew to the moon, somehow got burned out, beat on with a lunar hammer, and became the only TV camera brought back from the surface.

Lebrow himself had the entire handle assembly from that same camera, which he told me later, was "buried in my desk for 20 years when I found it...I didn't have anybody to give it to, so I donated it to this museum." Would anyone here have taken that off his hands?

posted 07-21-2005 12:45 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by John Youskauskas:
This was a very interesting event and memorable evening for those able to attend

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John, I was there and posted a report on the other thread at http://collectspace.com/ubb/Forum23/HTML/001675.html .

I could be wrong, but my understanding was that the camera used in the demonstration was an unflown flight version.

Didn't have a camera, but I did click off a few frames using the embedded imager in my cell phone.

Great evening.

Curt

posted 07-24-2005 08:46 AM            

I may have been mistaken, but when I spoke to Stan following the presentation, he alluded to the camera being assembled from some flown components, much like the one that was displayed at NASM in D.C. for years. He also told me that the Apollo 12 camera was refurbished and flown aboard Skylab.

posted 07-26-2005 08:53 PM               

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Originally posted by John Youskauskas:
He also told me that the Apollo 12 camera was refurbished and flown aboard Skylab....If you get back by the electronics museum, his camera piece is a handle assembly displayed in a large case on the left wall.

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That's interesting about the camera brought back from the moon on Apollo 12 being recycled like that.

I talked with museum director Michael Simons by telephone yesterday. He said that the full unit color lunar surface TV camera on display is actually just a wooden mockup that was prepared for and used by Walter Cronkite.

According to Simons, among the remaining pieces of the A12 camera is a pig nose connector that was snipped from the cable.

So if recollection serves, on display that night was (1) the B&W lunar surface TV camera that was operated, (2) another B&W lunar surface TV camera in the display case, (3) the wooden mockup Cronkite lunar surface color camera, and (4) parts from the A12 color lunar surface TV camera.

From what little I know about the lunar surface TV cameras the A12 color camera was the only one that was returned to earth from the surface of the moon. And there was only one B&W TV camera used on the surface during Apollo 11, and it was abandoned in place.

Curt