Posted on 07/20/2017 7:15:24 PM PDT by Ray76
I bought the Brian Floca children’s book “Moonshot” (great book btw; very dramatic, just like the real thing) for my custodial 7-yo grand daughter. As she was reading it to me, she noticed me tearing up at the “Eagle has landed” part. She stopped reading, asked me what was wrong, and I explained that the world was watching with intense anticipation, and it was a rare moment that the entire world could celebrate.
Then, at the “one small step” passage, I totally lost it. I hope I was able to convey the gravity of the moment.
Thanks for posting this. I was kind of surprised that there was not more mention of this today. Sad.
Don’t remember the date the landing was originally planned for, except that my loud-mouthed uncle bragged t was scheduled to land on his birthday. It happened on my 14th birthday instead.
After watching the walk that night as an 11 year old, I remember going outside and staring at the moon for awhile. Like I could see it or something lol
Remember it well. It was just about a month before my Bar Mitzvah. We gathered around the TV and watched it in living black & white :)
We let our 2 oldest stay up for it-—they were 8 and 7,they both fell asleep on the floor and missed it-—but I got a great snapshot of ——it was late here on the east coast.
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It was an interesting time. A day or so after the moon landing my dear old Dad predicted the Mets would win the pennant.
For a brief time, America was all on the same team.
It would never happen now. Trump could find a cure for cancer and the Democrats and news media would find nothing but negatives about it.
The resolution of a telescope (diffraction limitation) is based on the size of the objective lens, the distance of the object, and the wavelength of light. At only 31 feet across, the landers have an angular diameter from earth of about 0.0000014 degrees. The wavelength of visible light is between 400 and 700 nanometers, so the minimum diameter of objective lens you’d need is 20-35 meters (assuming the optics are perfect). And that’s just to resolve the landers as a single pixel, which wouldn’t tell you much. The largest telescope today is about 10 meters.
” With a Little Help From My friends” I stayed up for 72 hours to see Armstrong come down the ladder and step on the moon.
All I had was the naked eye and imagination that night
I was 17, in Ottawa as well, watching it on my girlfriend’s TV at her parents home in Elmvale Acres. She was bored and wanted to neck but I was riveted.
We haven’t been together since the year after that. It worked out better than moon colonization has to date, because I found another girl and we’ll be married 44 years September 1.
I still like to moon her periodically, though...
cheers
Jim
Becoming routine was the whole point behind the shuttle - a pickup truck to orbit - but, yeah, it’s a shame that worked against public impressions of space exploration.
cheers
Jim
Congrats on 44 years together! Well done!
Thanks. It’s all on her; she’s very patient.
This was a great moment in U.S. history. What a great accomplishment this was- considering the political and cultural conflicts - along with the technical challenges and limitations.
I am still in awe of what was done in our space program. These were brave and ingenious men and women.
The engineers, administrators, visionaries, and astronauts were focused on the single goal that JFK made just a little over 8 years earlier.
One person in particular who comes to my mind re. Apollo 11 is Michael Collins, the Command Module pilot. I wonder about HIS thoughts while he orbited the moon alone.
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