Well, last Thursday I went to the Gene Cernan "Last Man on the Moon" event here in Canberra. I elected to pay the rather large premium to attend the Meet and Greet.
Sadly, maybe I wasn't in the right mood, but I felt a bit underwhelmed by the event.
First things first - yes, Gene Cernan is in his eighties, and he's now a frail old man. But his mind is clear and his eyes still have that penetrating look of someone who clearly sees.
The M&G featured about 40-50 people, including our own Obviousman as well as me. We were given a goodies bag with a copy of the LMOTM DVD, a couple of posters (one signed) and a program book with some extended articles. Capt Cernan then walked onto the stage, said a few words to us and settled himself into a stool. Then we were lined up to be introduced one by one to him. We got to shake his hand while a photographer took a few pictures. Some people had a bit of a conversation with him, some got him to sign various objects, while others like me had barely enough time to introduce ourselves before we were ushered back off the stage. All through the photography sessions people were free to take personal photos of him. I managed a couple of low quality piccies on my phone.
And that was pretty much the end of the M&G.
We then had an hour's break before the main event. During the break I purchased a signed copy of Capt Cernan's LMOTM book.
For the main event, the 1500 seat theatre was packed, with the M&G people seated front and centre. And it turned out Obviousman had the seat next to me, so it was good to be able to catch up with him on a few years of news.
They showed the LMOTM video, after which the presenter, Dr Lisa Harvey-Smith of the Square Kilometre Array, introduced Capt Cernan, his old flying buddy Commander Fred Baldwin (for a short time I thought they'd said it was going to be Frank Borman!) and the film maker Mark Stewart. They chatted about various aspects of Capt Cernan's life, there was some banter between the two navy aviators trying to one-up each other, and Mark Stewart spoke a bit about his own insights into the life of an astronaut family, as the son of 1960s-70s Formula 1 driver Sir Jackie Stewart.
About ten people were then invited to a microphone to ask questions they'd submitted on forms before the main event. They were pretty standard questions, with no particular revelations in the answers, although Capt Cernan said that the spacesuits were very comfortable (something that hadn't really occurred to me) apart from the inflexible gloves.
There was then time for the photographer to come on stage and attempt to get a photo of the audience with the speakers, and a standing ovation for the speakers, and that was it.
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As I said at the start, I may not have been in the best mood (busy at work, busy at home, developing a cold) but I felt a little underwhelmed by the M&G experience, given its hefty price tag.
For one thing, it was clear that Capt Cernan had a lot more time for women, children, and men his age in the M&G group than he did for middle-age men like me, unless you had some particular gimmick that attracted his attention. I only need to look at the photos to see his face was far more animated with children and women than it was when he was posing for photos with men like me.
Another thing that disappointed me was his description of scraping his daughter's initials in the soil on the Moon. Sure, it's a lovely story, and we know that he fully intended to do so, but we also know that he didn't do it. It's just a shame that he feels it worthwhile turning a fantasy into reality (as minor as the incident is).
There were several times where he clearly misheard questions he was asked, even when they were repeated. I realise he's old, and I know that even Americans with good hearing find it difficult to understand Australians speaking through a microphone. But it meant that there were a few questions which were effectively left unanswered (along with the time taken up repeating the questions eating into answering time).
Finally, out of all the photos taken, and the 61 which were released, there was only one I bothered to save - of me shaking hands with Capt Cernan. The rest were photos of other M&G people, a couple of specially organised group photos and a couple of photos of people asking questions. None of the speakers+audience photos made it.
It wasn't until I got home that my wife reminded me that I'd had a proper camera in my backpack - I'd completely forgotten (my excuse was that I'd packed the camera that morning, and then gone straight from work to the event, so the camera had been out of my mind for 10 hours).
I'd also brought along my copy of Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon" to read beforehand to remind me of something Cernan had said. I'd had vague thoughts about getting it autographed, but when I saw signs in the theatre foyer saying "No autographs" I packed it in my backpack and left it in the cloak room. It wasn't until the M&G was underway that the promoter said that we were free to ask Capt Cernan to autograph items. But by then it was too late to go back and retrieve the book. So that was a bit annoying too...
In retrospect, maybe I should have brought my oldest son to the M&G, although that would have made the evening crazy expensive, and at only 8 years old I think he would have been both tired and bored as the evening progressed.
Anyway, that was my experience.
Perhaps Obviousman might like to add his own observations.
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BTW, people seen in the audience included Mike Dinn of Honeysuckle Creek fame, and Glen Nagle, the Education and Outreach Manager at the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station.
And no Jarrah White!
