Sibrel's "smoking gun" video - cabin light question

[Rob48]

I had a discussion elsewhere a few months ago about the segment of film that Bart Sibrel used in his "Funny Thing" video, in which he claims that the Apollo 11 CSM was actually in low earth orbit.

One of the arguments put forward by Sibrel and his supporters is that some kind of cover was removed from the window, which then allows light to flood in from the "nearby" Earth.

I am not sure the explanation for this sequence on Clavius.org is quite correct, and think this might be adding to the confusion.

Clavius says:

This fact is especially important when you view the entire downlink video, where the lights in the cabin are turned on to reveal that the earth photography wasn't shot through the hatch window! It was shot through one of the squarish side windows.

Were the lights actually "turned on"?  It seems to me that the cabin lights stay at the same brightness throughout, and only the camera setting produces the perceived change in brightness. The interior cabin light seems to increase in brightness by about the same amount as the light from the Earth outside. I would have thought that if the light was switched on/turned up, then it would brighten a lot more than the scene outside the window.

The key question from the HBs was: "why does turning the cabin lights up create a brilliant blue glow from outside the window"? You would think that turning the lights up would make the scene outside appear relatively darker, not brighter.

So, I think the camera, stopped down to F22, shows the interior of the cabin as almost pitch black, with the cabin light appearing quite faint compared to the glare of the Earth. Then the camera aperture is opened (as confirmed by the transcript - Houston says they need an extra f-stop after the first adjustment as it still looks too dark) and suddenly both the cabin light and the window are very over exposed and glaring.

So am I wrong? Were the lights actually turned up at this point? Were the cabin lights even dimmable? It can be seen in the footage that the cabin light is certainly not switched off entirely, as the dim light can be seen at the same time as the Earth outside.

For anyone not familiar with the sequence I mean, watch from about 8:10 in this video. The camera settings are changed at about 8:26.

[Allan F]

The cabin lights could at least be turned on an off - flourescent tubes does not dim easily. The way the lighting changes does look like a aperture adjustment.

[Luke Pemberton]

The key question from the HBs was: "why does turning the cabin lights up create a brilliant blue glow from outside the window"? You would think that turning the lights up would make the scene outside appear relatively darker, not brighter.

My informed guess would be that it's scattering of blue light from the glass. I don't think this alone explains the observation in its entirety as we need to account for the change in lighting and camera, but I'm not expert enough on the camera to explain this fully. I'm fairly sure that blue light is scattered from impurities in the glass and condensation producing a blue glow.

[Rob48]

The cabin lights could at least be turned on an off - flourescent tubes does not dim easily. The way the lighting changes does look like a aperture adjustment.

Yes, this is my main point. I don't think the brightness of the cabin light changes at all. It's entirely down to the camera aperture. That makes it much more understandable why everything gets brighter. Have I spotted an error by Jay?!

[Mag40]

The cabin lights could at least be turned on an off - flourescent tubes does not dim easily. The way the lighting changes does look like a aperture adjustment.

Yes, this is my main point. I don't think the brightness of the cabin light changes at all. It's entirely down to the camera aperture. That makes it much more understandable why everything gets brighter. Have I spotted an error by Jay?!

No, I don't think you have. The passage from clavius refers to the other claim concerning the shape of the window. Sibrel claimed it was shot from across the cabin through the round port hole window. When the cabin lights go on, then the camera pans back and Buzz floats away from the window, we see it is the trapezoid shaped window. During filming, the internal lights were switched off. It is only at the end of the test segments that they are turned back on.

The blue tinge is over exposure from the camera and the scattering effect of light in the blue spectrum. Considering we just saw the tiny Earth through that very window, it hardly supports the case for low Earth orbit.

[JayUtah]

Someone emailed me about this before and I looked up the control panel diagrams and wiring schematics.  The cabin lights are not continuously dimmable, but they have a Bright and Dim setting that illuminate different fluorescent tubes within the same fixtures.

But yes, you see the cabin lights in the frame with the aperture stopped down for shooting the Earth, and then you see the aperture open up and the cabin suddenly becomes brighter.

I have it on my list to rewrite that part to clarify what was happening.