Apollo 11 TV images as seen
at Honeysuckle Creek
showing the television
picture from the Moon on monitors at the
Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station
Monday 21st July 1969 (Australian time)
For a further discussion of Apollo 11 TV, see the
Apollo 11 TV section.
Scanned by John Saxon
(Operations Supervisor at Honeysuckle during the Apollo missions), August
2003.
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Some of these photos were taken of the Fairchild slow scan monitor (10 frames per second, 320 lines resolution – the photos with a white background), while most were taken of the scan-converted video on the adjacent NTSC monitor (30 frames per second, 525 lines resolution). The photos of the slow scan monitor are actually upside-down – we’ve included them the right way up here. This is because the TV camera was upside-down when it was mounted in the MESA. The toggle switch used to invert the picture was installed on the scan-converted, and therefore only the scan-converted pictures were the right way up. After the TV camera was removed from the MESA, the toggle switch was used to change the TV back to the correct orientation. Irrespective of which monitor was used, the images below comprise the bulk of known images of the Apollo 11 EVA taken at the tracking stations in real time. As of December 2005, only two stills taken at Goldstone, and one taken at Sydney Video of the Parkes slow scan video, are known. |
Most, probably all, of the photographs were taken by Honeysuckle’s
video technician Ed von Renouard,
using his Konica single lens reflex 35mm camera.
He writes that they were “taken off the slow scan monitor from a replay of the M22 tape after the pass”.
Copies were made for various members of the Honeysuckle staff.
Others were taken on the day by Bernard Scrivener, Honeysuckle’s Admin
officer.
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Ed von Renouard at the Honeysuckle Creek video console The slow scan rack is at the left. Photos 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are of the top slow scan monitor (white background) – the others are of the scan-converted monitor directly in front of Ed (yellow background). The smaller monitor to the left, at Ed’s eye level, was used to check various station configurations. |
The descriptions (possibly penned by Honeysuckle Admin officer
Bernard Scrivener)
are those written on the back of the prints held by John Saxon, and are included
below in blue bold.
Timing notes by Colin
Mackellar are in red, as well as more accurate
descriptions
(after careful review of the video of the EVA) in brackets.
Ground Elapsed Time, determined with reference to the Apollo
Lunar Surface Journal,
is also included below most of the images.
The images have been cleaned up to remove dust and marks and
were slightly enhanced. They were scanned at 300dpi.
Notes:
The first frame was taken while the international TV audience was still seeing poor quality pictures from Goldstone.
The second and third photos were taken during the period Sydney Video and the international audience were taking Honeysuckle –and the fourth and fifth were taken while the international audience was taking Goldstone.
The sixth photo was taken about a second after the switch to Parkes.
Note the lights inside the Operations Building at Honeysuckle reflected at the top of the screen in the scan converted monitor photos – and at the bottom in the slow scan photos (which are upside down).
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GET: 109:22:59 Scan converted image 42s after “TV on” (Both Australian TV viewers and the international audience are seeing Goldstone, which has just switched from an upside-down picture). |
GET: 109:24:39 Scan converted image Actually, immediately before “the groundmass is very fine”. Houston TV had switched to Honeysuckle’s picture by this stage. |
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Unconverted slow scan image GET: 109:25:30 “some
evidence of rays emanating”
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Unconverted
slow scan image Neil is explaining that the backlight into the Lunar Module enables him to see everything clearly, even though he is standing in the shadow. |
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GET: 109:29:18 Unconverted slow scan image Actually, Neil is retrieving the Hasselblad 70mm camera from the LEC before mounting it on the RCU bracket on the front of his suit. At this point, international viewers were seeing Goldstone’s picture again. |
GET: 109:31:00 Unconverted slow scan image Just after Sydney Video has switched to the picture coming via Parkes, and the Houston has switched back to the Sydney feed. |
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GET: 109:31:11 Unconverted slow scan image |
Scan
converted image. Note that this is nowhere near as sharp as the A11TV07 slow scan image, taken moments before. |
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Scan converted image Checking he can get back up to the first step. Note Armstrong, overexposed, standing in the sun in the background. |
GET: 109:42:42 Scan converted image Checking he can get back up to the first step. Note Armstrong, overexposed, standing in the sun in the background. |
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Scan converted image This frame was taken just before the camera was swung further to the right, and before the panorama taken by Neil. |
GET: 109:58:55 Scan converted image |
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Scan converted image |
Scan converted image |
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Scan converted image |
Scan converted image |
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Scan converted image Actually, this is setting up the US flag. |
