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)
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
Dorian Sabaz says:
December 25, 2013 at 4:21 am “So where are the photos? After the greatest adventure of Mankind, it seems EVERY SINGLE ASTRONAUNT forgot to take a photo of the Earth FROM THE MOON’S LUNAR SURFACE.”
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NASA has many interesting photos online. One of Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt with the earth in the background can be seen at http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/SMALL/GPN-2000-001137.jpg
To ilearnedthatinhighschool.
That’s all? After the greatest adventure Man has ever done…that’s all!
Where are the photos, the videos. Where are they?
Just a thought, why is the Earth so small? The Moon from Earth is larger. Hmm, I ask for photos and now videos…and all I get is a blurry peep hole.
I stand by my question….where are the MANY photos and videos that should have been taken by every single astronaunt that put a foot on the Moon, of the Earth? Where are they?
The Earth should be high in Lunar sky, bright big, and beautiful. After all, the Earth is nearly x4 bigger than the Moon. Where are the photos and videos of the greatest event in the history of Mankind!
I truly would like to see them! For there are no where to be found….NOWHERE!
WHY?
Dorian Sabaz says:
December 25, 2013 at 5:16 am
You seem to be suggesting that we never went to the Moon, that it was all staged on a back lot set somewhere in the U.S. Perhaps you should stop the confirmation bias, do more research and you will find out how silly you sound.
Just another thought ….
If I were an astronaunt and I went to the moon, I would have done something of the following, like people all around the world do with the Moon here on Earth, here is an example:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211322/Thats-giant-leap-mankind-Cleverly-posed-photos-man-jumping-moon-holding–slam-dunking-it.html
Why are there no photos or videos like these? It seems every single astronaunt missed the fabulous Earth photo opportunity. The greatest event in history, and no single American astronaunt took a photo, or video.
Where are the photos or videos of the Earth from the lunar surface? Show us the photos and videos NASA! Lets see our Mother Earth in its full glory!
Where are the photos and videos? Its a simple question. Enough with the thousands of boring photos of the Moon surface. How about the ONE GREAT PICTURE that is the reason why Man went to Moon for! To see the EARTH from the Moon’s surface! Where is it! This should be greatest photo or video ever done. But what do some of you show me, something you can’t even see properly. From the Earth I can see the characteristics of the Moon, the Sea of Tranquility and so on. From the Moon I should definitely be able to see the continents, after all, the Earth is 4x BIGGER.
Use common sense.
Where are the photos of the Earth from the lunar surface? Its a simple question. Stick to the facts, stick to common sense, stick to the science. I just want to see the photos and video, where are they?
Why do they not exist? At least they do not exist in the public domain. What’s the big secret NASA? All I want is to see some photos of OUR REAL Earth, with all its amazing continents, weather patterns, looking larger than life (approximately 4x’s bigger than what we see the beautiful Moon from Earth), from the Moon’s surface.
Where are all the photos and videos? Where?
To Anthony, Willis, Bob , Justthefacts and all of the other moderators and readers of the blog: Bless you all and have a wonderful Christmas!
Dorian Sabaz says:
December 25, 2013 at 4:21 am
> So where are the photos?
I would like to rip in to you for posting claims like this with no attempt whatsoever to try to understand it. However, it is Christmas, my family exchanged gifts yesterday so I have some time now, and I assume you don’t know much about photography or trigonometry. It’s an easy enough analysis, and I’ll skip the spherical trig stuff I don’t understand all that well and would take longer than I care to work through. Actually, a couple extra steps with plane trig would probably work. Feel free to ask someone to use a GPS receiver do some of the calculations or look for a Web converter that could be used.
The Apollo landing sites are at http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/landsites.htm and a map is linked from that page. Lunar lat/long 0°N/0°E is the lunar point that, on average, has the Earth at the zenith, the straight up point. Here are the coordinates:
Note three landings were close to the equator and one was close to the prime meridian, let’s “relocate” them to be on those lines and the trig is trivial. Apollo 14 (I saw its launch) landed closest to the “sub-Terran” 0/0 point. From the landing site, the Earth’s elevation would be 90° – 17° = 73°. To get Earth and Moon into the same frame you’d need either a fisheye lens or be looking straight up. I bet the astronauts never saw the Earth from outside the LEM and maybe not from inside it.
The landing furthest way was Apollo 17. From measuring on the map, it looks like that’s some 35° away from the sub-Terran point, so the Earth was 55° above the horizon. They ought to have been able to see the Earth, and that photo ilearnedthatinhighschool refs pretty much proves they could both see it and photograph it. Remember the cameras were attached to the space suits, I don’t think they could see a view finder. (One of the very best things NASA did was train astronauts in photographing the missions, I read an account somewhere about the person who spearheaded that, he’s an unsung hero, one of many.)
I don’t know what the field of view was for the cameras the astronauts had, I suspect it was less that 55° and even if it was greater it would be tough to get Earth and Moon in the same frame.
The answer is three parts:
1) The astronauts could take great, historic photos of Earth and Moon from orbit with long focal length lenses. And did.
2) The astronauts on the surface had little or no chance of capturing both from the surface.
3) The cameras on the surface likely did not have a zoom lens, so the best they could do with an image of the Earth is what Gene Cernan captured.
ilearnedthatinhighschool: thanks for that photo, I don’t think I ever saw that.
The Earth rises and sets, on a 28 (earth day) schedule….
Thanks for the memories… Merry Christmas…
BTW..Duck Dynasty also has high record high TV ratings…
Merry Christmas to all.
Merry Christmas to Anthony and family, to all the dedicated moderators, and to everyone who makes this such a terrific website. If you don’t celebrate Christmas–I hope you have a wonderful day, and thank you for all your contributions.
The mon does not actually spin or rotate on it’s own axis
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then how can it have an axis? the axis is defined by rotation. It does not exist otherwise.
Rotation period
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The rotation period of an astronomical object is the time that it takes to complete one revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the background stars.
Ric, the Earth appears in some shots from Apollo 11 on the Moon’s surface:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/catalog/70mm/magazine/?40
And as you suggested, there are shots from Apollo 17:
http://www.mcmahanphoto.com/prco-space-apollo17.html
In both cases (I didn’t look for others) the Earth does appear quite small. My guess is that they were using a wide-angle lens on their Hasselblad camera to avoid tight focusing and limited depth of field. That might make the distant Earth appear smaller. As you say, the most widely-publicized photos of the Earth from the Moon were taken in orbit, where there was more camera flexibility.
I’m speculating; perhaps someone with expertise on the subject can chime in.
* * *
Anthony, many thanks for posting this wonderful recollection of the Apollo 8 Christmas broadcast. FYI, Robert Zimmerman has written a book on the voyage and that event: Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8 : the First Manned Flight to Another World, available here:
http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Apollo-Manned-Flight-Another/dp/1439502307
Merry Christmas!
/Mr Lynn
Ric Werme says:
December 25, 2013 at 6:06 am
Ric, thank you for taking the time this morning to post your reply to Dorian. As an aside my daughter lives in Sweden (married to a very nice man for 3 years) and studies Immigration, Migration and Language History. She comes in contact with many younger people who do not believe man ever went to the moon. She has found it futile to even try to discuss the reality as those who take this position grasp at “common sense” to back their claims. None of these people, and I suspect Dorian is like them, have a clue to the limited technology back then, limited as compared to today’s world. They also don’t realize that mission time on the surface of the Moon was limited and tightly controlled so as to get as much scientific data about the Moon as possible. It was not a sightseeing vacation trip. For those of us who lived it, it was an astonishing time and I am forever grateful that the educators in my home town of Hamden, Connecticut who had the foresight to allow us to watch every Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launch live during school hours. It truly was history in the making.
Dorian Sabaz says:
December 25, 2013 at 5:40 am
I should leave well enough alone, but I’ll weigh in here too.
No, you would not. The main reason is that all of those photos show the Moon within a couple degrees of the horizon. (The Moon is about half a degree in diameter, so it’s a convenient yardstick.) The lowest the Earth was from the Moon was 55° so nothing like these would have been possible from the Moon.
Secondly, most, maybe all, of these photos are collages. The only time the Moon is visible near the horizon is when it’s full, and at dusk with the Sun behind the viewer. (The new Moon is visible fairly close to the horizon, but it has to be a couple days old or it’s lost in the glare of the nearby Sun.)
For example, in the first photo the Sun must be off to the right but not by much. Completely bogus. Ditto the fourth.
In the third photo, the Moon is covering part of the boy’s arm. Completely bogus and very lame editing.
In the last two, the person is standing in the same position, look at the plants around him. I’m certain the photos were taken at the same time for later editing. Completely bogus.
I haven’t taken the time to see if the orientation of Moon is possible, there’s little to be gained be that.
I am utterly flabbergasted that you are incredulous that similar photos were not taken from the Moon but are so accepting of photos that are obvious fakes.
relative to the background stars
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question. If motion is relative, then why do we experience rotation relative to the background stars? Doesn’t this imply there is an absolute frame of reference?
Otherwise, if motion is relative, then a spinning top should be equivalent to a stationary top with the universe in motion, spinning around it. But it isn’t. The spinning top resists anything that tries to tip it over, while the stationary top does not.
ferdberple says:
December 25, 2013 at 6:11 am
It’s all in the frame of reference.
A pedant could claim that the axis the Moon revolves around is the barycenter of the Earth-Moon system.
In any inertial frame of reference, the the Moon does rotate. Period.
Dorian, the object of interest was the moon not the Earth. We didn’t send tourists up there in Hawaiian print shirts with Kodak cameras hanging around their necks. They had scheduled work to do and very little time to do it in. Geesh. Thank heavens we didn’t send you. You wouldn’t have gotten anything done. I’ll bet your teachers were constantly complaining about your lack of attention in school.
That generation strove to put a man on the moon…
This generation strives to put men on welfare.
Dorian Sabaz says:
December 25, 2013 at 5:40 am
Where are the photos or videos of the Earth from the lunar surface?
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You are forgetting that from the moon, there is no “earth-rise”. From the moon the earth remains fixed in the sky. None of the manned landing sites would have brought the earth close to the lunar horizon. You would need something like a birds-eye camera to make the shot.
What we need are leaders like Kennedy that heralded a noble cause inspiring men to achieve a monumental task like reaching the moon and direct a charge to create a clean safe energy source like fusion. My Christmas wish. Merry Christmas everyone.
To Dorian Sabaz
In the above comments please read Gerald Kelleher’s quote from Galileo.
THE great moon hoax, the technology did not exist in 1969 to fake it…
Ric Werme says:
December 25, 2013 at 6:53 am
In any inertial frame of reference, the the Moon does rotate. Period.
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The question of the inertial frame is an interesting one. Consider two situations. The moon is rotating relative to the background stars. The moon is not rotating relative to the background stars.
Now consider both moons in an inertia frame. They should be identical, but they are not. On the second moon, an object will weight the same regardless of where on the surface you measure its weight. However, on the first moon the same object will weigh different amounts, depending upon where you are on the surface, due to the rotation of the moon with respect to the background stars. Objects near the equator will weigh slightly less that objects at the poles.
Thus, because one can establish ones location on the first moon and not on the second, irrespective of the inertial frame, the first moon has an axis, while the second does not.
This is my last comment, I can see this will deteriorate into something stupid.
I only want to see some photos and videos, nothing else. For many years I wanted to see these photos and videos and they have never been published. So I ask, why not?
But, aside for the moment, I do have an other interesting thread of thought. I have been reading this blog for some years and even commented from time to time. But what seems very peculiar and disturbing to me is how, the general concenus here on this blog space can so easily unite and charge the Global Warming Crowd of improprietary and mal-science, when they can’t even question their own beliefs. As has already begun with “Tom in Florida”, perniciousness has so myopically begun, as soon as somebody heralds a thought that you instantly without thought, consider blasphemy.
I asked a simple question, and now the poison will flow. Americans indeed seem famous for this, I am sorry to say.
Whether or not I believe in the Moon landings is immaterial. I asked a question, and the perniciousness begins. Are we not men of science that should always question and enquire? Or do we, who wish to learn and understand, must follow the priests of ignorance, just because they know how to spell the word “silly”, but do not know what it means or how to use it grammatically or semantically correctly in a sentance?
All I ask, is why? As for reasons and answers, I will have to wait for sounder and calmer minds and those less driven with histrionics to provide the answers. Something that this blog is in greater thereof need.
This is what I do not understand, to those of you with sane and inquisitive minds, might find these following questions of interest, to the Tom’s in Florida, I recommend you and take a jump in the Atlantic ocean and temper your histrionics and impudence.
Why I want these photos and videos:
– For many thousands of years Man has watched the Moon, and questioned its purpose and existential being. We have watch the Moon from Earth, so the obvious question has been what would it be like to watch the Earth from the Moon? Like a man living on the plains and looking up at the peak of a mountain (like Hillary looking at Evererst), what view, what wonders of wonders, whould a man see from that peak, or …that Moon! Surely all of Humanity has asked that question. And so I asked it, and what did I get? ….As as if Hillary from Mount Everst, said he saw a blurry mole-hill on the landscape below. I do not believe this…it can not be, why not? Read on….
– The Moon does not rotate on its axis with respect to the Earth. We see the same face of the Moon all the time. But this is not the case of the Earth with respect from the Moon. The Earth would rotate and from the Moon, you would see this rotation…what a wonder that would be! As the probes to Saturn and its moons showed to see how a planet or satellite orbits was a great wonder. But here we are, Man goes to the Moon, no photos or videos of the Earth rotating, which would be so clear to see, since it is FOUR times bigger than the Moon from Earth. Nothing….incredible.
– And think about this one, if you are all serious scientists. What scientist, what adventurer, what explorer, risking their lives, would go thousands of miles to a lonely desolate place where no man has ever gone, and then only comment about the Moon and give some poor commentary about the Earth. Not one astronaunt EVER commented how incredible it is to see the continents from the Moon. No commentary on how the Earth rotates and you see Europe, then Asia, then the Americas. Ah but these comments you hear every single time when astronaunts go up into space and orbit the Earth, or they stay in the space stations. This kind of commentary never ends. And yet on the Moon…. NOTHING. And don’t tell me that the Earth is too far! The Earth is 4x larger than the Moon is from what see from Earth. The greatest spectacle Man has very seen and not a single word about it. Why?
I don’t understand, so I ask questions. Are we scientists, or priests protecting religions. To “Tom in Florida”, I pity you, and all those that follow those who choose the path of ignorance and perniciouness.
I ask simple questions. I’ll let the real men of science to ponder them, the rest of you, like the ‘Tom’s in Florida’ and the Global Warming Community to take a dip in the Atlantic, where all the other ship-wrecks of ignorance and occlusivity belong.
Now I dare you all who fancy themselves as men of science, to ask the same questions, and better yet….get the truthful, honest answer. Or is fear the real honour here.
So for one last time, I ask the honest and simple question, where are all the photos and videos?
I have now said enough, and so for now, enough from me.
Dorian Sabaz
REPLY: Here’s your photo.
I usually don’t like to be a “bah humbug” on Christmas, but let me just say for the record, that it is YOU that has “deteriorated into something stupid.”.
Merry Christmas and goodbye – Anthony
Hello, Dorian.
It’s a pity that you chose to run from the conversation. However, there is a positive aspect resulting from your unfortunate statements.
You are serving as a prime example of how people will not be shaken from their mistaken beliefs, no matter how much truthful information is given to them.
Thank you, Merry Christmas.
upcountrywater says: December 25, 2013 at 6:09 am “BTW..Duck Dynasty also has high record high TV ratings.”
Live by the television and die by the television. Thanks be to our Lord.
Nollaig Chridheil.