Fetzer/Burton Moon Landing Debate Finale

[Peter Dawson]

Peter Dawson

I don't wish to get into any testy exchanges, but I would be interested in your thoughts of the seeming discrepancy entitled 'a disturbing Buzz' in Jack White's Apollo analysis:

www.aulis.com/jackstudies_3.html

These are supposed to be two shots of Buzz Aldrin taken on 20 July 1969, and yet they seem to be two different people in terms of physique. (Length of arms with respect to legs for example.)

What do you make of it?

(For the following, when I refer to photos, unless otherwise stated I mean the photos I've given links to, not the images in Jack White's study.)

The weight on the back of the astronauts made them stoop slightly forward most of the time, and Aldrin seems to have his knees slightly bent in nearly every photo (a selection can be found here).

In JW's photo analysis, in the left hand image (image 5903), Aldrin seems to have his knees bent more than normal, and his ankles look to be bent to suit, and even though JW comments that the ground is "relatively level", it looks to me as if Aldrin is standing in a small depression, with the ground higher at his front, lower at his rear.

In the right hand picture (image 5873), Aldrin seems to have his legs straight, with his torso bent forward. That's why we see the top of his backpack.

>>First image has a long torso because he isn't bent forward, and short legs because his knees are bent. Second image has long legs because his legs aren't bent, and a short torso because he is leaning forward.


White claims that Aldrin "turned around for the second pose, while Neil walked to the other side to shoot the second pose", but looking at the high quality images, even with my wine goggles on, I can slowly figure out that from the first shot Aldrin moved forward a few body lengths, past the prong sticking out from the pad of the LM as seen in the second photo, and Armstrong stepped away some distance, bringing the wind experiment contraption into view.

Taking the shadows into account, how can JW's red dot be the same in both photos, given the movements he suggests took place between the two photos? Looking at JW's study, if Aldrin merely turned around, his shadow in the second one would nearly be on top of the red dot. But in fact his shadow moves away from the dot in the second photo.

If you really want me to put my money on the line, I'd say that the small rock to the left of Aldrin's left foot in the first photo can be seen in the second photo just to the left of the wind experiment contraption, about one third of the way from the bottom of it. So Aldrin has moved forward and turned to his right from the first to the second photos. Armstrong has moved a significant distance to his left to take the second photo.