Thursday, August 30, 2018

Buzz And His Missing Antenna

Buzz Aldrin on lunar surface but something is different.

Evidence of staging problems.

When researchers go searching for Apollo photography anomalies they always claim that the photos Neal Armstrong took of Buzz Aldrin emerging from the LEM were too well lit in the shadows, implying that additional lighting was used.  The official story is that the lunar surface is reflective and the clear illumination of the Buzz Aldrin in shadow, is basically the same as using a reflector (also known “fill light”).  Having been a professional photographer and having used both flash strobes and reflectors, I see no problem with the theory of a reflective lunar surface.  Bounce lighting occurs in nature.  

One issue that seems to be overlooked is the appearing and disappearing of the VHF antenna on the life support backpack known as the Portable Life Support System (PLSS).  The antenna is located on the top right side (from the front) and allows for communication between astronauts on the lunar surface during EVA, to NASA in Houston and the uploading of telemetry data.  For storage, it is folded down and must be manually raised to an upright position.  It should be in an extended position at all times on the lunar surface.  It is not clear if communications are hampered but having the antenna in a down position.  But this is not a concern here.  Instead, it is the apparent rapid appearance and disappearance of the VHF antenna in the lunar photographic evidence with only seconds or minutes missing in between frames.




Figure 1.  Buzz Aldrin setting up the Solar Wind Composition (SWC) experiment, from his left and front.  These shots were mere moments apart.  Note the sudden missing antenna on the image to the right.



Figure 2.  Buzz Aldrin setting the SWC from his right.  Once again, the antenna is missing even while the photographs are apparently shot only a few seconds or moments apart, and Buzz is in a different position.  



Figure 3.  Buzz Aldrin at attention by the flag on the lunar surface.  



Figure 3.1.  Same image with cropped close-ups of the helmet area. Once again, images are shot only seconds apart and the antenna is missing again on the image to the right.

In this odd sequence taken from Buzz’s left and right the antenna is appearing and disappearing in each pair of photos.  It is almost as if there is another photographer shooting these images besides Neal Armstrong, as he would have had to moved quickly to the other side of Buzz as he was setting up the experiment.  It is unclear why a different angle would be needed here in the first place.  The antenna may have simply fell over, but in this pair of images, Buzz is completing different states of his task and it occurs each time in the photographic record. 

The few, very few images taken of Neal Armstrong show no antenna issues.  So far, no issues of this sort have been found on other Apollo lunar landings.  If so, another posting will appear on that.

In film production there is a job called “continuity supervisor.”  This person’s task is to make sure all objects  are positioned in their original places in case anything is moved or broken during multiple takes during filming.  Sometimes photos are taken to insure proper placement. And sometimes they don’t catch everything and an object will disappear or appear in a different place in a scene.  Seems like something similar happened in these images, if they were faked.


A note on the images.  Links are provided below for all photos here to show that none have had image data manipulated.  No edited out antennas or anything else.  Images have been cropped for clarity with basic cropping and adjustments with auto levels.  Nothing else.


Sources

Flickr NASA Apollo Archive
Top Image

https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/22042577106/in/photostrea

Figure 1



Figure 2 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21880567980/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21445908204/in/photostream/


Figure 3 and 3.1

https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21445931234/in/photostream/