http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=227680
View Rate : 146 # News Code : TTime- 227680 Print Date
: Thursday, September 30, 2010
New Australian footage of Neil Armstrong's moon walk
SYDNEY (AFP) -- Long-lost footage of Neil Armstrong descending the ladder of
the Apollo 11 lunar module will be screened in public for the first time in
Sydney next week, a prominent astronomer told AFP.
The footage runs for a few minutes and is considered to be some of the best
footage of the historic 1969 moonwalk, but the film was lost in archives for
many years and was badly damaged when found, said John Sarkissian.
It depicts the first few minutes of Armstrong's descent which was recorded in
Australia as NASA was still scrambling for a signal, showing a far clearer
image than was initially screened worldwide.
Telescopes in remote Australia played a key role in the Apollo 11 mission,
including provision of the television signal, after Armstrong decided to
attempt the moonwalk early, putting the United States just beyond the horizon.
Sarkissian -- historian and astronomer in charge of the Australian side of the
recordings restoration project -- said the unseen minutes were the "best
quality of Armstrong descending the ladder."
"NASA were using the Goldstone (California) station signal, which had its
settings wrong, but in the signals being received by the Australian stations
you can actually see Armstrong."
"In what people have seen before you can barely see Armstrong at all, you can
see something black -- that was his leg." The segment which runs for "just a
few minutes" will be screened at the awards night of Australian Geographic
magazine next Wednesday, at which Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin will be the
chief guest.
"When we heard Buzz was going to be the guest of honor we thought 'what a great
opportunity'," Sarkissian said.
The Armstrong footage, which has only previously been seen by Apollo veterans
and other members of the astronomy community, would form part of a highlights
reel of restored, digitized moonwalk footage at the awards, he added.
There was a "long detective story" involved in the search for the footage and
Sarkissian said it took painstaking frame by frame work to shift the material
from the deteriorating black and white film to digital format.
"It was very damaged tape as well, that segment of Armstrong at the beginning,"
he said.
Digitizing the recording was "significant in the space flight history context"
allowing it to be preserved and copied for future generations, said Sarkissian.
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