Questions regarding the (alleged) Apollo soundstage.

[Noldi400]

The visibility of stars in photographs still remains one of the hotly contested points, when the science of it is so very well established.

I think the absence of stars is counterintuitive for the HBs because the Lunar sky is black and we're acustomed to black sky = night.

The very simple truth, if you think about it, is that it was daytime at the landing sites and you don't (typically) see stars in the daytime. Duh.

I remember seeing the program you participated in with the night desert shoot and I remember that my first thought - even though the subject under discussion was the reflectivity of the ground filling in shadows - was "How about that? No stars."

Once, just as a mental exercise, I tried to play Devil's Advocate with myself - my notion being, "If I approached the subject with an open mind, is there anything that would convince me that the moon landings were faked?". I came to the conclusion that maybe - MAYBE - if there had just been AS-11 and no follow-up missions, it could have happened. But the sheer tonnage of data (and samples) accumulated by all the missions together... well, I think it's just beyond human capability to fabricate that much material with that level of consistency. So, for me anyway, I guess it's the Hoax that falls under the heading of Personal Incredulity.

[JayUtah]

I think the absence of stars is counterintuitive for the HBs because the Lunar sky is black and we're acustomed to black sky = night.

John Young remarked that he felt uncomfortable on the Moon and finally worked out that half his body was telling him it was nighttime because of the dark sky while the other half was telling him it was daytime because of the daylight.  Apparently there's some truth to that, because research into circadian fatigue mentions bright sky as a cue that the body should be wakeful.

I remember seeing the program you participated in with the night desert shoot and I remember that my first thought - even though the subject under discussion was the reflectivity of the ground filling in shadows - was "How about that? No stars."

In the scene later in the Hollywood photo lab we look specifically at the photos I took with the Apollo Hasselblad camera stopped as wide open as it would allow, at 1/60 second, and noted that there are no stars.  I have those transparencies, and I've had them professionally scanned and I've looked at them under microscope and I can't see any stars.

Coincidentally Mars was at its brightest that night -- in full phase at its closest approach to Earth.  I got some naked-lens pictures of it with my digital camera, but only at obscenely long shutter speeds (e.g., ISO 800, f/4 at 0.5 sec.).

[gillianren]

I've always found the no-stars argument pretty conclusive that most of the HBs don't live in, say, Los Angeles.  I've been in Los Angeles very late at night indeed, and you still can't see stars.  The city itself is too bright.

[Zakalwe]

The truth emerges, in which a falling light ruins Neil's first step.

I love this one because it still makes the rounds of conspiracy theorists even after the obvious reference to the "Mr. Gorsky" joke, and the coming-clean of the London studio that made it.  After a month of letting it go viral, they posted a page at the original URL that said basically, "Here's who we are, here's how we made it, and please don't take it seriously."  The die-hard conspiracy believers keep falling all over themselves trying to show that it's still "somehow" a genuine outtake clip.

You see the same behaivour in crop-circle believers. Even when Bower and Chorley came out and showed how they made them, the adherents kept banging on about plasma vortices, spaces-craft etc. etc. Wasn't there a relatively recent one where some students created a circle and admitted it the next day. They showed how they created it, the plans that they had drawn up, the tools used, yet the crazies were STILL wandering about saying it was supernatural in origin. 

For some, there's money involved. They make $$ writing books, lecturing and so on.For others it's as if they HAVE to believe that the world doesn't work the way that it does. Witness the recent Mayan end-of-the-world hub-bub....you can guarantee that the majority of the ardent believers will be away off amusing themselves with another conspiracy/end-of-world scenario.

[Chew]

You see the same behaivour in crop-circle believers. Even when Bower and Chorley came out and showed how they made them, the adherents kept banging on about plasma vortices, spaces-craft etc. etc. Wasn't there a relatively recent one where some students created a circle and admitted it the next day. They showed how they created it, the plans that they had drawn up, the tools used, yet the crazies were STILL wandering about saying it was supernatural in origin. 

For some, there's money involved. They make $$ writing books, lecturing and so on.For others it's as if they HAVE to believe that the world doesn't work the way that it does. Witness the recent Mayan end-of-the-world hub-bub....you can guarantee that the majority of the ardent believers will be away off amusing themselves with another conspiracy/end-of-world scenario.

And they cling so hard to all the dubious long-debunked claims so strongly they even include them in their "challenge": Challenge 2012 - Crop Circle Challenge

[Zakalwe]

And they cling so hard to all the dubious long-debunked claims so strongly they even include them in their "challenge": Challenge 2012 - Crop Circle Challenge

Now who does that remind us of? At least these guys have published some rules....

[gillianren]

Though I question the validity of quite a few of those rules.  Why does the field have to be so wet?

[Zakalwe]

Though I question the validity of quite a few of those rules.  Why does the field have to be so wet?

Probably to make sure that they have a decent chance of retaining their £100K! 

[raven]

And they cling so hard to all the dubious long-debunked claims so strongly they even include them in their "challenge": Challenge 2012 - Crop Circle Challenge

While not as bad as some recent websites linked, ow, gold on purple, ow, my eyes!

[Halcyon Dayz, FCD]

The truth emerges, in which a falling light ruins Neil's first step.

I love this one because it still makes the rounds of conspiracy theorists even after the obvious reference to the "Mr. Gorsky" joke, and the coming-clean of the London studio that made it.  After a month of letting it go viral, they posted a page at the original URL that said basically, "Here's who we are, here's how we made it, and please don't take it seriously."  The die-hard conspiracy believers keep falling all over themselves trying to show that it's still "somehow" a genuine outtake clip.

"Provenance" is an other concept HBs don't seem to get.

[DataCable]

Yeah, some of them probably do think Rhode Island is also a hoax.

[Count Zero]