Did the Moon Landing Really Happen?

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The discussion centers around the skepticism surrounding the moon landing, particularly the claim that the absence of stars in lunar photographs suggests the event was staged. Participants clarify that stars are not visible in the Apollo images due to camera exposure settings, not because they were absent. The lack of atmosphere on the Moon results in a dark sky, but bright objects like the lunar surface and astronauts' suits require fast exposure times that do not capture faint stars. Additionally, the feasibility of staging such a monumental event is dismissed, noting that the Soviet Union would have quickly exposed any hoax. The conversation emphasizes that the complexity of faking the moon landing would be greater than the actual mission itself, reinforcing the authenticity of the Apollo missions.
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i've heard lots of theories of people saying it was staged but dunno...some people beleived it was fake because there were no stars in the sky...any comments? about this topic?
 
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This one is for you Ivan!
 
Originally posted by decibel
i've heard lots of theories of people saying it was staged but dunno...some people beleived it was fake because there were no stars in the sky...any comments? about this topic?

Hey decibel. :smile:

Thanks to FZ+, you can find a link to badastronomy.com in the skeptics napster on the main page of this [S&D] forum. I will quote part of the explanation found there. The link to this particular discussion is found at the end of the page.

The stars are there! They're just too faint to be seen.

This is usually the first thing HBs talk about when discussing the Hoax. That amazes me, as it's the silliest assertion they make. However, it appeals to our common sense: when the sky is black here on Earth, we see stars. Therefore we should see them from the Moon as well.

I'll say this here now, and return to it many times: the Moon is not the Earth. Conditions there are weird, and our common sense is likely to fail us.

The Moon's surface is airless. On Earth, our thick atmosphere scatters sunlight, spreading it out over the whole sky. That's why the sky is bright during the day. Without sunlight, the air is dark at night, allowing us to see stars.

On the Moon, the lack of air means that the sky is dark. Even when the Sun is high off the horizon during full day, the sky near it will be black. If you were standing on the Moon, you would indeed see stars, even during the day.

So why aren't they in the Apollo pictures? Pretend for a moment you are an astronaut on the surface of the Moon. You want to take a picture of your fellow space traveler. The Sun is low off the horizon, since all the lunar landings were done at local morning. How do you set your camera? The lunar landscape is brightly lit by the Sun, of course, and your friend is wearing a white spacesuit also brilliantly lit by the Sun. To take a picture of a bright object with a bright background, you need to set the exposure time to be fast, and close down the aperture setting too; that's like the pupil in your eye constricting to let less light in when you walk outside on a sunny day.

So the picture you take is set for bright objects. Stars are faint objects! In the fast exposure, they simply do not have time to register on the film. It has nothing to do with the sky being black or the lack of air, it's just a matter of exposure time. If you were to go outside here on Earth on the darkest night imaginable and take a picture with the exact same camera settings the astronauts used, you won't see any stars!

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html
 
Hi decibel!

Those who say it was staged are idiots without a clue.

Considering that the Soviets would have been watching the moon landing and would have been the very first to burst any slightest inkling of a hoax, it would have been absolutely impossible to stage the landing. A signal was coming from the moon (or enroute to the moon) the entire duration of the mission. It is impossible (or certainly more difficult than actually going there) to fake that...
 
Individual pieces of evidence aside, hoax believers can't grasp the vastness of the conspiracy required to fake the moon landings. It simply isn't possible.
 
i c...well thanks for the info guys...i was just wondering what other people think about since some idoits think they staged it in the las vegas desert...but yeah, i understand now thanks
 
Originally posted by enigma
Hi decibel!

Those who say it was staged are idiots without a clue.



Absolutely right! It is like all the stupid UFO stories... Isn't it odd that the only group of people who never seem to see UFO's are Astronomers who spend all their time looking up at the skies above!
 
Doesn't the badastronomy.com website cover every issue of this?
 
At some point in this argument, it becomes clear that actually going to the moon is far easier than faking it well.

Njorl
 
  • #10
Originally posted by Zero, Adrian Baker
Absolutely right! It is like all the stupid UFO stories... Isn't it odd that the only group of people who never seem to see UFO's are Astronomers who spend all their time looking up at the skies above!
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Doesn't the badastronomy.com website cover every issue of this?

If anyone wants to debate this point please start a new thread.
 
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