Photography on the moon

[Fiendish Astronaut]

I just finished reading the authorised biography of Neil Armstrong. And during the section about his time on the moon there was a fair bit about the photography up their. Neil was the man charged with doing most of the photography work and used an especially adapted Hasselblad. One of the things that came out in the book was that - out of the many many images taken - only one depicted Neil himself; and that was one taken by himself of his reflection in Buzz Aldrin's visor!

In the book it seemed that Buzz had petitioned quite strongly to be the first man onto the surface of the moon; and in fact it was common practise in previous mission for the commander (in this case Neil) to do the flying whilst the mission specialist (Buzz) does the bulk of the mission duties which in this case would have been walking onto the moon first. I won;t go into the details but it has been suggested that Buzz deliberately took no photos of Neil because he was annoyed with this situation. Buzz denies this, and from reading about their relationship I doubt it too.

Anyway, did a quick search about the use of the Hasselblad on the moon landing and eventually found a couple of interesting srticles which I thought I'd share...

Article about the Hasselblad (in two parts):

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/moon/1.htm


More about the Hasselblad:

http://www.panoramas.dk/moon/mission-apollo.html

Short article about how John Glenn pioneered space photography with hisn own Hasselblad:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/031023.htm


Apparently there are 12 Hasselblads sitting discarded on the moon right now... seems an awful waste.

Interesting eh?

 

[rom4n301]

wtf?? 12 hassleblads on the moon???? fk ill build myself a space **** right now i dont care if i come back alive or not.. as long as i have a hassleblad

 

[Fiendish Astronaut]

I know. I wonder how many years before someone sends up a craft to salvage all this stuff? All the missions - including the first moon landing - have left huge amounts of stuff behind. PLus there's a whole bunch of stuff floating around somewhere. All of it with extraordinary historical value. I'll bet that a salvaged piece from Apollo 11 might be priceless.

 

[Antarctican]

Heehee, I love reading bits of info like this. Interesting stuff!