Space News
space history and artifacts articles

Messages
space history discussion forums

Sightings
worldwide astronaut appearances

Resources
selected space history documents

  collectSPACE: Messages
  Publications & Multimedia
  One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 40 Years On

Post New Topic  Post A Reply
profile | register | preferences | faq | search

next newest topic | next oldest topic
Author Topic:   One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 40 Years On
cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 11-06-2008 09:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 Remembered
by Piers Bizony
The first moon landing in July 1969 captured the imagination of the world as no subsequent "space spectacular" has. Forty years later, space historian Piers Bizony has produced a stunning visual record of this unparalleled mission. Drawing on high-resolution images from the entire suite of Apollo 11's on-board film magazines, the book presents a complete picture of the mission: the launch, the astronauts' lives inside the spacecraft, the landing and moon walk, and finally the return to earth to worldwide acclaim. Accompanying these remarkable images, many published here for the first time, is Bizony's fascinating essay on the lasting cultural and emotional impact of the mission. Quotes from astronauts, scientists, and literary commentators add an extra dimension to Bizony's account.

Apollo 11 may have happened a long time ago, Bizony remarks, but it casts an important shadow over today's generation. Can we live up to it and learn from it -- or even repeat its achievements with new spacecraft? However tempting it might be to assume that our advanced modern society could go back to the moon, it is an unavoidable fact, as this book makes clear, that Apollo 11 was an event that may never be replayed. One Giant Leap gives modern readers the information and perspective for thinking about Apollo 11 and space exploration in general in an entirely new way.

  • Hardcover: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Zenith Press; First edition (May 15, 2009)
  • ISBN-10: 0760337101
  • ISBN-13: 978-0760337103

heng44
Member

Posts: 3386
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001

posted 11-07-2008 01:49 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As an interesting aside, Piers Bizony's book will contain photos from the collections of J.L. Pickering and yours truly...

cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 05-08-2009 09:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
My copy arrived today. Note the change in title: One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 Remembered.

Flipping through the book, this looks to be a really nice coffee-sized table book - not sure the chapter about Orion is well-suited but...

So, Ed, how come some photos are blurred/out-of-focus:

  • crew leaving for the launch pad (p91)
  • a shot of Armstrong in mid-flight (p101, 107)

heng44
Member

Posts: 3386
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001

posted 05-09-2009 02:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Chris, I'll let you know when I receive my copy, but my guess is because the originals were also blurred.

cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 05-09-2009 09:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
You better because I haven't found them online! I guess they're part of the A11 Retro Space Images CD.

Your name does appear at the end, though (along with other folks who scanned pictures).

heng44
Member

Posts: 3386
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001

posted 05-14-2009 11:03 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just received my copy today. As I suspected, one or two photos are out-of-focus because the originals are. Nothing you can do about that.

I note that Piers Bizony has won the race for the Apollo 11 anniversary books. Plenty more to follow...

GoesTo11
Member

Posts: 1309
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 05-14-2009 11:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for GoesTo11   Click Here to Email GoesTo11     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by heng44:
I note that Piers Bizony has won the race for the Apollo 11 anniversary books. Plenty more to follow...

Just think what we'll get on the 50th...

cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 05-14-2009 11:37 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by heng44:
Just received my copy today. As I suspected, one or two photos are out-of-focus because the originals are. Nothing you can do about that.
I never questioned that the originals were out of focus, just wondering why they were: astronauts were in a rush? The spacecraft was tumbling? Or maybe simply because "in those days", cameras were not as sophisticated as the ones we have today?
quote:
I note that Piers Bizony has won the race for the Apollo 11 anniversary books. Plenty more to follow...
More? I have only one listed: The Apollo 11 Moon Landing: A Photographic Retrospective by Dennis R. Jenkins and Jorge R. Frank.

heng44
Member

Posts: 3386
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001

posted 05-15-2009 02:52 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well, there's 'Voices from the Moon' and 'Mission Control: This is Apollo' by Andy Chaikin; 'Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts' by Robert Jacobs; 'Painting Apollo' by Alan Bean; 'Missions to the Moon' by Rod Pyle; 'Magnificent Desolation' by Buzz Aldrin... to name a few.

I guess most of these can be considered Apollo-at-40 books.

cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 05-15-2009 03:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ah, okay. I thought I had missed one! I thought you were referring only to photographic books - and I have counted "only" five of those: Piers Bizony's; Dennis Jenkins and Jorge Frank; Andrew Chaikin's; 'Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts' by Robert Jacobs and Olivier de Goursac's "Moon" (Lune). All mentioned in separate entries in this section.

garymilgrom
Member

Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 05-15-2009 08:29 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for garymilgrom   Click Here to Email garymilgrom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I received and read my copy this week. I agree with the poster who questioned the Orion and Ares content - that seems out of place. But overall this is a good book, and the author's idea to focus on unseen Apollo 11 images is great. Remember all cameras were manual focus in those days, and (as written) some photos are so bad they can only be accidental pushes on the shutter button. But these still add atmosphere and help take the reader back in time to experience the significance of what this flight accomplished.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-26-2009 09:23 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by cspg:
I never questioned that the originals were out of focus, just wondering why they were: astronauts were in a rush?
From Jeff Foust's critique of "One Giant Leap" for The Space Review:
Part of that reason is that the crew weren't necessarily good photographers: they were, after all, pilots preoccupied with the challenge of getting to the Moon and back, and photography held a correspondingly low priority, particularly beyond the scientific and technical documentation of the Moon and their spacecraft. "Many shots, and especially those taken inside the spacecraft," Bizony writes, "are blurry, under-exposed, or so random in the choice of subject matter that they can only have resulted from the shutter button being pressed by accident."

Bizony claims to have more images from the mission than any other "mass-market publication". And, as he warned, some of dozens of pictures in the book are blurry or poorly composed. Yet the images are fascinating and remarkable nonetheless: those technical imperfections make them all the more vivid and real, a reminder that they are documentation by astronauts who were only secondarily -- at best -- photographers.

All times are CT (US)

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Administrative Options: Close Topic | Archive/Move | Delete Topic
Post New Topic  Post A Reply
Hop to:

Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts

Copyright 2020 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved.


Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.47a





advertisement