Men Were Last on Moon 40 Years Ago Today

[really?]

The last men to walk on the moon blasted off its surface for a final time 40 years ago today. After three days exploring the Taurus-Littrow lunar valley, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt lit the engine on the upper (ascent) stage of their lunar module "Challenger" and launched off the surface at 5:55 p.m. EST (2255 GMT) on Dec. 14, 1972.

The last word spoken by a man on the moon (to date) — "Ignition" — was voiced by Schmitt, the first geologist and professional scientist to fly on a NASA mission. Cernan, as Apollo 17 commander, delivered the order to leave — "Let's get off" — just moments before.
More: http://www.space.com/18910-apollo-17-an ... -moon.html

[SydneyPSIder]

no they weren't. where's the stars? or was that the first mission that actually made it? irregardless of radiation levels

[ProfWag]

[The23rdman]

No he doesn't, but I do. It takes at least a 15 second exposure to capture stars and that would leave the module massively overexposed.

[Arouet]

[The23rdman]

I'm away from my PC, but wanted to acknowledge I've seen this and will reply.

[The23rdman]

Okay, in essence the stars will be at least 5 stops darker than the module. What this means is you have a choice - you can have the module perfectly exposed and a black sky or the stars visible and the module blown to kingdom come. The only way to expose for both is to light them separately. With film you're pretty limited unlike today and also shooting 70mm would make it all but impossible because you'd need such a long exposure.

Incidentally, I feel there is some mileage in the theory that some of the shots were hoaxed as from a pure photographic perspective there does appear to be more than one light source and the classic shot in the spotlight looks pretty dodgy.

[NinjaPuppy]

[The23rdman]

I'm not taking sides, btw, and I'm not jumping from some photos appear to have been faked to we didn't go to the moon.

[NinjaPuppy]

[Arouet]

Ok, once we finish with the radiation issue in the other thread why don't we do that angle next?

[The23rdman]

Sure. I'll take some time to look at both arguments and see if they stand up purely from a photographic perspective. I'll admit I've only given them a cursory look up till now because I'm more interested in health care than moon landings.

[really?]