Worthless knowledge

<p>Anybody want to comment on this?<br>

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bean<br /><br />"Bean had planned on using a self-timer for his <a title="Hasselblad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasselblad">Hasselblad</a> camera in order to take a photograph of both himself and Pete Conrad while on the lunar surface near the <a title="Surveyor III" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_III">Surveyor III</a> spacecraft. Bean was hoping not only to record a wonderful photo, but also to confuse the scientists back home on how the photo could have been taken. However, neither he nor Conrad could locate the timer in the tool carrier tote bag while at the Surveyor III site and thus lost the opportunity. Bean did not locate the self-timer until the very end of the EVA when it was too late to use - at which point Bean threw it as hard as he could.<sup id="cite_ref-4" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bean#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup> Bean’s paintings of what this photo would have looked like (titled "The Fabulous Photo We Never Took") and one of his fruitless search for the timer ("Our Little Secret") are included in his collection of Apollo paintings.<sup id="cite_ref-5" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bean#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-6" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bean#cite_note-6">[6]</a>"</sup></p>

<p>Yet another occasion where the astronauts really didn't know how to use the cameras assigned to the missions. </p>

<p>All those dollars spent one would at least have expected a 30 minute training course on how to operate the photographic equipment, no? Only goes to show that it wasn't at all about science...</p>

<p>So funny... worth to hear the real sound (<a href="http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/a12.surveyor.html">MP3 and transcription here</a>).</p>

Here's a link to NASA's Hasselblad manual for astronauts:

 

http://www.hasselblad.com/media/2207875/astronauts_manual_singlepage_lr.pdf

 

I saw something about using a cable release but nothing about a self-timer.

<blockquote>

<p>Yet another occasion where the astronauts really didn't know how to use the cameras assigned to the missions.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>So shouldn't the thread title really be "Lack of Knowledge"?</p>

<p>You know, all things considered, if they had to forget a few details in training I'm okay that these were the ones that didn't make the cut.</p>

How does "not being able to find the self timer" equate to "not knowing how to use the equipment"?

It all smacks a bit too much like Let's See What Apocryphal Tall Story We Can Come Up With.<br>Camera training will have been extensive (and not using that "manual" Hasselblad published for us, regular punters) and the astronauts will have known that an Autoknips would not even work with the Lunar Surface camera to begin with.<br>Don't fall for this.

"...not being able to find the self timer..."

 

Why wasn't the self-timer stored with the camera and/or film, batteries and other accessories? I assume the crew knew

where to find those.

<p>I don't understand why this is significant and it reflects nothing on the astronauts. It sounds like he wanted to take a shot but couldn't find the self timer until it was too late. Not sure this says anything about NASA, astronauts, space flight or anything: if it had been on the mission log of things to do they would have done it for sure. It was an "extra", "fun" thing he wanted to do, but simply couldn't find it. The idea that they did no know how to use these cameras is laughable.</p>

You cannot (!) use a selftimer with the cameras they were using on the Moon...!<br>And you can be sure everybody involved knew.<br><br>Laughable are those who fall for this yarn.

Why can't you use a self-timer on the moon landing camera (a modified Hassie 500EL)? According to the manual, there

were three remote release accessories, one of which was a 27 MHz radio-control unit whose receiver could be mounted

on the accessory shoe. See page 10.

 

Source: http://www.cameramanuals.org/hasselblad/hasselblad_500el-1.pdf

First, a remote is not a (self) timer. Second, an EL(/M) is not an HDC (which, among other things, means no accessory shoe.) Third,...<br><br>But this whole thing is no more than a prank. A bit of fun they are having with whoever reads the stuff.

<p>Seriously now, I dont think John Kennedy's challenge of putting a man on the Moon also ever included training the astronauts for family self timer portraits on the surface! :)</p>

There were three Hassies on the moon mission. "Two of the 500ELs were identical to the ones carried on the Apollo-8, -9

and -10 flights. Each had its own Zeiss Planar f-2.8/80 mm lens. A Zeiss Sonnar f-5.6/250 mm telephoto lens was also

carried. One of the conventional 500ELs, along with the telephoto lens and two extra magazines, was in the Apollo-11

Command Module throughout the flight. The other conventional 500EL, and two extra magazines as well, were placed in

the lunar module. Also in the lunar module - and making its first journey in space - was a Hasselblad 500EL Data

Camera, which was the one to be used on the moon's surface."

Source: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11-hass.html

 

The conventional Hassies (perhaps also the Data Camera ??) had an accessory shoe on the side of the body. See figure 33

in the following source document.

Source: http://www.hasselbladhistorical.eu/PDF/HasManuals/500ELM.pdf

Ben,<br>There were no conventional EL(models) on any of Nasa's Apollo missions.<br>Hasselblad had a special division of the company devoted to nothing else but rebuilding their cameras to meet the many pages long book of specifications stuff had to comply with before being allowed to come on a flight.<br>Have a look at the pictures at the Nasa site, and see where you can find the accessory shoe.<br>The closest to conventional Hasselblad cameras flown in space by Nasa were found on the Shuttle. And even those were modified quite a bit.<br><br><br>But anyway: this story about a missing timer is a spoof.<br>For those still not getting it: A SPOOF.

Here are two photos of the HDC that clearly show the accessory shoe.

 

(1) a museum piece said to be identical to the actual camera, which was left on the lunar surface.

 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hasselblad_500_EL,_1968,_identical_to_that_used_on_Apollo_11_mission_to_m

oon_-_Musée_Nicéphore_Niépce_-_DSC06009.JPG

 

(2) a training photo showing Buzz Aldrin learning to aim the camera, which was chest mounted and did not have a view

finder, which the astronaut's helmet rendered useless.

 

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/ap11-KSC-69PC-362.jpg

Ben,<br>You're right: there is a shoe to take a finder.<br><br>But we can go on about this for ages: it is and remains a hoax.

<p>Well, looks like they took near 45 minutes looking/thinking on the timer. I can imagine it was that <a href="http://www.fototime.com/6BA83A2FBF4438B/medium800.jpg">turret type old timer</a> with the wheel and that noisy mechanical whirring sound... (My wife would have killed me, for sure, after say, 15-20 minutes looking for the thing in a local park... I wonder what would happened if I were in a spatial mission... ouch! ;)</p>

<p>While on the subject of spoofs, did they really use a Linhof 4x5 "space" camera on the space station and Shuttle. I seem to remember a pretty convincing shot of this inside an orbiting vehicle. But as is well known, the moon landing actually took place in New Mexico, so who do you trust?</p>

I thought it was Arizona.

<p>Utah: don't you guys know anything?</p>

<p>Two of us went up a mountain once with a Mamiya TLR and came back baffled because we couldn't get the leather case to open...</p>