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Astronomy Fun Fact:

Did you know that once Apollo 11's Eagle module had touched down,
it was over 6 1/2 hours before Armstrong emerged and made history.

estimated that one billion people on planet Earth watched Armstrong step from the lander
onto the surface of another world

How many of you reading this thread remember the momentous occasion? Reruns don't count!

It was my brother's 4th birthday that day; I was about to turn 6.
I saw the landing and stayed up (8 PM!) to see Armstrong's moon walk.
It was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen.

And I just KNOW the tinfoil crowd will point to that flag and say,
"Hey! That flag is WAVING! Proof they filmed this on a studio backlot!"

Fox TV and the Apollo Moon Hoax.

From that web page: The answer is, it isn't waving. It looks like that because of the way the flag was deployed. The flag hangs from a horizontal rod which telescopes out from the vertical one. In Apollo 11, they couldn't get the rod to extend completely, so the flag didn't get stretched fully. It has a ripple in it, like a curtain that is not fully closed. In later flights, the astronauts didn't fully deploy it on purpose because they liked the way it looked. In other words, the flag looks like it is waving because the astronauts wanted it to look that way. Ironically, they did their job too well. It appears to have fooled a lot of people into thinking it waved.

All the rest of the info needed to debunk tinfoil "moon hoax" theories can be found there.

Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy is a website dedicated to correcting misconceptions, demonstrating "bad astronomy" in movies, and generally trying to separate fact from fiction; hard evidence from hearsay.

1 posted on 07/20/2002 2:58:13 AM PDT by petuniasevan
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To: MozartLover; Joan912; NovemberCharlie; snowfox; Dawgsquat; viligantcitizen; theDentist; grlfrnd; ...
APOD PING!
2 posted on 07/20/2002 2:59:32 AM PDT by petuniasevan
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To: petuniasevan
One small step for man........
One GIANT leap for mankind!

8 posted on 07/20/2002 5:39:51 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: petuniasevan
Sorry, I was 6. Did get to know the guy who made the rocket fuels but I think I've posted that before.
9 posted on 07/20/2002 10:40:21 AM PDT by farmfriend
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To: petuniasevan
Tranquillity Base. The Eagle has landed.

Should anyone try to claim the moon, show them this picture. That's the American flag. Not the Chinese flag, not the Russian flag, not the British flag. Not the UN flag.

10 posted on 07/20/2002 12:19:29 PM PDT by RightWhale
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To: petuniasevan
It was my Daddy's birthday and we were at our fishing camp for the summer and didn't have a TV there. My sister had a party for my Daddy at her house and we celebrated by watching the first 'moon walk' on her TV! It was just SO amazing, and the way Mama and Daddy were affected by it really made an impression on me. They were awed by the idea that man was capable of such a magnificent feat!
11 posted on 07/20/2002 3:35:27 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: petuniasevan
Here's a link to a zip file containing a wav of the 2 minutes or so preceeding the landing - the astronauts calling distance, Houston calling fuel remaining, and then "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000032416

And here's a link to the website that has a large number of Apollo 11 wav files zipped up and ready for download.

http://www.winsite.com/games/sounds/page25.html
12 posted on 07/20/2002 8:16:22 PM PDT by Tennessee_Bob
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To: petuniasevan
WOW
13 posted on 07/20/2002 8:18:43 PM PDT by Radix
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To: petuniasevan
'Had a 30th H.S. reunion picnic today, and many of us were remarking how it didn't seem that 30 years had passed by. It seems coincidentally strange that it's been about 30 years now since man last walked on the moon -- we have a whole generation of Americans who were not around to experience one of the greatest technical achievements of mankind.

I recall being transfixed on the B&W screen in the living room 33 years ago with my dear Dad and uncle as Armstrong took that momentous first step -- something I'll never forget and wonder whether we'll ever see the likes of again.
14 posted on 07/20/2002 9:09:58 PM PDT by mikrofon
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