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  Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
  Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast and Earthrise

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Author Topic:   Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast and Earthrise
4tr
Member

Posts: 129
From: Scituate, Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 06-18-2013 09:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for 4tr   Click Here to Email 4tr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I was 23 years old when Apollo 8 made its famous Christmas Eve broadcast. To this day, I have a definite memory of a fuzzy image of the Earth above the lunar horizon as the broadcast ended. Recently I watched several YouTube videos of that moment, and nowhere is the Earth visible. I wonder if anyone else remembers the event as I did. It's somewhat disappointing to learn that a cherished memory has turned out to be a false one.

tfrielin
Member

Posts: 162
From: Athens, GA
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 06-18-2013 10:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for tfrielin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sorry, it's a false memory. The on-board TV camera never imaged the Earth over the moon. You must be collapsing the famous film camera image of Earthrise with the TV feed.

4tr
Member

Posts: 129
From: Scituate, Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 06-18-2013 10:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for 4tr   Click Here to Email 4tr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I was afraid of that. Now I know why lawyers regard eye-witness testimony as frequently unreliable.

onesmallstep
Member

Posts: 1313
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007

posted 06-18-2013 02:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for onesmallstep   Click Here to Email onesmallstep     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I remember clearly the Apollo 8 mission and the reading of Genesis; it was the beginning of my interest in space flight. As for the earthrise over the moon; if you saw "From the Earth to the Moon," Borman says to Lovell after his camera has no film to capture the event, "It'll come up again!" I guess no one thought to point the tv camera or maybe it was too bulky.

tfrielin
Member

Posts: 162
From: Athens, GA
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 06-18-2013 03:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for tfrielin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The crew did try to image the earth on their outbound trip to the moon, but the B&W TV camera didn't have a monitor on it so they had trouble framing the Earth in the field of view. The ground coached them on their aim and they did get the Earth in the field of view, but it was kind of frustrating to this viewer at least that they couldn't do a better job of it.

Blackarrow
Member

Posts: 3160
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 06-18-2013 05:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
After a failed attempt to transmit a TV picture of Earth, the crew did succeed in transmitting an image which was as good as the TV system could manage. It was a stunning picture, as evidenced by just about every newspaper in the (western) world.

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