While ISS astronauts do a spacewalk this Christmas eve, I thought that this would be the best tribute I could make for them, and for all of my readers, contributors, and moderators.
Audio and some stunning new video follow.
![480px-NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/480px-nasa-apollo8-dec24-earthrise1.jpg?quality=83)
They recited:
Bill Anders
“We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.
‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.'”
Jim Lovell
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”
Frank Borman
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.’
And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”
Here is the historic audio clip of the text above:
That happened 45 years ago today, when the Apollo 8 astronauts suddenly noticed the Earth “rising” over the lunar horizon. Despite all of the planning for the mission, this event was a complete surprise, and they scrambled to load color film and get cameras ready.
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio has created a marvelous recreation of the event, using 3D modeling, original audio from the onboard recorder, and the actual photographs of the moment on December 24, 1968, when the astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission orbiting the moon were unexpectedly confronted with an “Earthrise” and worked together to snap some of the most viewed photography in history. This is an excerpt from the full public-domain video, narrated by the Apollo mission historian Andy Chaikin:
The full visualization is here.
In 2007, an HD camera aboard Japan’s Kaguya satellite videotaped earth ‘rising’ and ‘setting.’ Set to music by Peter Rundquist, the images bring home the lonely, extraordinary nature of this “pale blue dot.”
h/t to Andrew Revkin for that video
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Maybe The Lew sent them here hoping to prove his paper after the fact?
I surrender – it WAS A HOAX. you can get the full story by watching Stanley Kubick’s ‘The Shining’ and studying the info. here: http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/ My Mother’s brother DID NOT work for Grumman at Bethpage, NY in the 1960’s and was NOT part of the LEM Design team and DID NOT tell me about machine parts parts being taken down to minimum spec. for weight savings and DID NOT ever witness directed energy weapon research Demonstrations later on in his work, – and my Father, an electronics engineer on the cutting edge of that technology of the day was totally taken in by his Brother-In-Law’s elaborate deceptions.
bruce1337 says:
December 26, 2013 at 11:14 am
______________________
Oh, I get it. You tricked me in and I wasted my time talking to you. Your words aren’t sincere and you are a hoaxster.
finis
Wbrozek
You begin with the experience that every 24 hour day you wake up,you are also waking up to another rotation of the planet with all its effects therefore it should interest so concerned with planetary temperature rises and falls that the rotation of the planet is behind this effect day in and day out up to and including Feb 29th which completes for orbital circuits of the Earth and the 1461 rotations that fill it .What would be new to most readers here is how the orbital position of the Earth is determined in space where Sirius moves just far enough to one side of the Sun (due to the orbital motion of the Earth of course) to be seen outside the Sun’s glare.
There is no stellar circumpolar motion involved and that is where the guys in the late 17th century jumped the tracks by putting Sirius into stellar circumpolar motion and a rotating celestial sphere structure.If you can’t understand the apparent motion of the stars due solely to the orbital motion of the Earth then there isn’t a chance you will comprehend why those 1461 natural noon cycles within 4 orbital circuits are transferred to the familiar 1461 twenty four hour cycles that make up the same 4 orbital circuits.
You now jettisoned ‘solar vs sidereal’ story demanded 1465 rotations in 1461 days making a mockery of the correlation between daily effects within a 24 hour cycle and its rotational cause where they keep in step.
So,in a website that definitely assumes it has the high superior ground in terms of planetary temperature turns rabid at the sight of the cause of the daily temperature fluctuations and its rotational cause.The ‘solar vs sidereal’ notion is fiction on an industrial scale and it is troublesome for multiple reasons not least how it ties in with the orbital motion of the moon and Earth.Those awful guys in the late 17th century tried to run the daily and orbital motion of the Earth off a common North/South pole axis so they could model solar system structure within a rotating celestial sphere –
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/Sidereal_Time_en.PNG
Anyone who feels upset that there is a person who suggests the moon doesn’t have a separate spinning motion will now know how upset the guys who feel that humans can control planetary temperatures feel,the difference being that we can see the moon directly and determine we can’t see all sides,something that would happen were the moon to have a separate spinning motion to its lunar orbital circuit.
Fortunately even some people draw the line above a spinning moon and spare themselves from intellectual oblivion.
“Anyone who feels upset that there is a person who suggests the moon doesn’t have a separate spinning motion will now know how upset the guys who feel that humans can control planetary temperatures feel…” ~Kelleher
Does anyone know what he is talking about? Is someone “controlling the planetary temperatures”? He is using
Ron House
Apologies for the poor proofreading in the last response to Wbrozek.
Not a single astronomer in history ever discussed a spinning moon although they did discuss the phases and what causes the phases even though we share the same conclusion that the moon orbits the Earth along with those from antiquity,Plutarch’s work is exceptionally beautiful in this respect –
http://thriceholy.net/Texts/Moon.html
It is not that none of you find it strange that in Galileo’s great observational report ‘The Starry Messenger’ he discusses at length the orbital motion of the moon and how it creates moonscapes of light and dark
but never rotation for the simple reason it would have been absurd –
http://archive.org/stream/siderealmessenge80gali#page/16/mode/2up
You want the wonders of astronomy and they are there in the pages of both works but they ain’t in an era that believes the moon spins. Apologise to Anthony if you so wish but neither of you are going to extrapolate rotation as a separate motion from its lunar orbital motion from images of the moon over a month –
http://www.stariel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/moon_phases1.jpg
Wish this nonsense would stop but just goes to show that astronomy is rudderless and that any in-depth analysis to discover how the mainstream policy came to promote a ‘spinning moon’ is simply not present at the moment.
Gerald Kelleher says:
December 26, 2013 at 12:34 pm
I need to improve my teaching skills before I resume this conversation with you.
Ask him who is “controlling planetary temperature,” and how, and why.
It doesn’t matter what time of night or year that I drag out my antique 60X telescope to look at the visible moon… I always see the same face of the moon. Can anyone with even a “mild” education really look at the moon and fail to understand why the moon always looks the same? Really?
Alan
If you conclude the moon spins even though you never get to see the far side I suggest you trade your telescope for a microscope. To be a ‘spinning mooner’ is an affliction just as those unfortunate souls who are convinced humans can control planetary temperature like a household thermostat but by a wide margin,those who see a spinning moon definitely exist in an intellectual oblivion that is unique to this era.
You might get the rare person willing to find the notion of a spinning moon repulsive and indeed they have existed as a loose group of people throughout the years but after landing men on the moon where the astronaut can choose to not look at the Earth by virtue that the moon doesn’t spin and the idea is still in circulation can be breathtaking at times.
Some chance that readers have of appreciate the polar day/night cycle and its orbital cause as all locations on Earth turn once to the central Sun apart from and in addition to daily rotation,all planets do –
http://www.daviddarling.info/images/Uranus_rings_changes.jpg
Gary Hladik says:
December 26, 2013 at 7:36 am
Gareth Phillips says (December 26, 2013 at 2:43 am): “If the moon were suddenly removed from our system and plonked in interstellar space it would not be spinning,”
Actually, it would be. Sorry. 🙂
So where would it obtain the spin Gary, and how fast would it be spinning ? I’m happy to learn, but I need a bit more information than just a flat contradiction. I agree it may be still moving in relation to other bodies, but spinning on an axis in they same way the Earth does?
No, you were perfectly clear. You just need to stop trying to making sense out of what this fellow is writing. But either way, no point in resuming.
/Mr Lynn
I’ve done a cursory search to little avail. The only evidence I’ve come up with to verify that the moon rotates on its own axis have been several versions of: “if it didn’t, then during the course of it’s monthly orbit we would see more of it from earth, possibly all of it, instead of what we do see, which is only slightly more than half (and would be exactly half if not for libration)”.
While this argument makes perfect sense to me, I think it less than convincing to those who seem to think “tidal locking” of the moon’s orbital period/rotation means the moon is not rotating on its axis – ie the “tetherball” analogy. Does anyone know how we could determine whether tidal locking represents a condition in which all axial rotation of the locked body has ceased and/or how that would look different from what we presently observe? Verifiable sources, please.
The only relevant other data I can think of offhand that might be significant is this. It is not only the earth’s moon that is under tidal lock, but also many other moons of the solar system with their primaries, and also Mercury with the sun. Each of these various other tidally locked objects has a unique orbital period/rotation lock. Yet I still fail to see how what we presently observe would look different from an orbiting object that had completely ceased rotating on its own axis.
Also, on what evidence do astronomers say the moon rotated faster in the past.
Just wondering. Thanks and Merry Christmas![…]
Sorry, there was a problem while posting my previous comment and it starts to repeat after: “Just wondering. Thanks and Merry Christmas!”
Wbrozek
I am enjoying the conversation for here we have this issue which can easily be resolved with the help of the ancient astronomers who were incredibly careful in spotting that Sirius skips an appearance by one day after four cycles of 365 days and even if they were unaware of it,forever defined the Earth’s orbital position using the number of rotations as a gauge.
Sirius is one of the stars that temporarily is lost to the glare of the central Sun and the apparent motion of the star has nothing whatsoever to do with stellar circumpolar motion –
http://isiopolis.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/slide1.png
You can see it on the animated graphic –
But in reality it is beautiful and in antiquity coincided with the flooding of the Nile –
http://danmary.org/tiki/show_image.php?id=30
So how do we know there are 365 1/4 rotations in each orbital circuit ?,well you need 4 orbital circuits of the Earth to determine that and it is historical storytelling at its finest and nobody should have a problem with it and especially the only possible use of the apparent motion of a background star to our central Sun.
Only a hard shell of indoctrination prevents people from enjoying just how clever our ancestors are and genuine history rather than the fiction generating machine of the late 17th century theorists .
To the forum
I know you all mean well apart from one sensible person who has enough sense to at least not be caught with the bluffing and voodoo of ‘tidal locking’ but right now you are in a position far worse than the unfortunate people who have this mindnumbing idea that by some act of doing or undoing we can control the planet’s temperature. In an effort to insist the moons spins people are willing to ignore planetary dynamics and especially the motions of the Earth and its effects on planetary temperatures so whatever high intellectual ground you may believe exists,it certainly hasn’t surfaced in this thread.
They say academics are so vicious because the stakes are so low and in this case it may be close to the truth but your fate is that of those who took the sensible view on lunar dynamics over 150 years ago .I will enjoy the lunar orbital phases for what they are and comfortable within the astronomical tradition which never mentioned rotation in respect to the moon. The fact is that a ‘spinning moon’ was conjured up by a mathematician is incidental in the same passage he has the Earth turn to stellar circumpolar motion in 24 hours and Venus in 23 hours !!!.
http://books.google.ie/books?id=gB2-Hqdx_LUC&pg=PA579&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false
Even the holdouts will disappear once the figure of Sir Isaac enters the picture even those his assertions are a joke and made even worse by his treatment of apparent planetary retrograde motion in what must be the greatest act of intellectual vandalism seen.
At least you all know now how the ‘climate change’ nee ‘global warmers’ feel in their quest to control our planet’s temperature.Perhaps you are all better off joining them because at the moment you act as necessary shills to make it appear there is an intelligent debate going on but as the education system is a well known indoctrination system you can figure out where you stand in the scheme of things.
REPLY: “planetary dynamics and especially the motions of the Earth and its effects on planetary temperatures” Barycentrism is just as much voodoo and idiocy as the moon landing deniers wailing here about photographs. Both sides have pretty much wrecked a thread intended to be inspirational. Thread closed after my final comment. – Anthony
I’m pretty much tired of the whole moon landing denier and barycentrism foolishness that wrecked this thread intended to be inspirational. So, thread closed.
If I could, I’d introduce you folks to Buzz Aldrin: