Fetzer/Burton Moon Landing Debate Finale

[Peter Dawson]

A new computer analysis done this morning, with various tones of "solid black sky" revealing anomalies.

Jack

I don't really see anything very anomalous about your findings. I think the same kind of thing might be happening in this photo as happens when the brightness of the sun prevents us from seeing stars in the sky which we know are there. Actually, in this photo we see that the brightness of the sun is preventing us from seeing stars which we know are there (you expect the sky should be deep black, Jack, but the sky is full of billions of stars. Why don't you expect the camera to record the stars? Because the sun is making it impossible for the film to record the stars), but the same principle is at work making the black of the sky non-uniform as recorded by the film of the camera and revealed by your treatment of the image.

The black of the sky in the background really is the same deep black all over, roughly speaking, but because there is a man in a bright white suit in the foreground of the picture, the film doesn't record the same deep black in the areas near the white of the suit, or even near the white stripes of the flag.

There is a black square in the top right because it is farthest away from the bright white colours, and the film is able to record deep black in that area. The closer you get to the white areas in the picture, the more the brightness of the white interferes with the camera's ability to record the blackness of the sky.

Just as the sun stops astronauts on the moon from seeing stars in the sky, the bright white of the astronaut suit and the flag stripes stop the camera from recording the deep black of the sky adjacent.

Or at least that's what occurs to me when I look at the two pictures.