Former Astronaut Accidentally Exposes NASA
Charley Duke inadvertently refutes official moon photos.
Even though I have many doubts regarding various issues of the NASA moon landings, in this interview with Glenn Beck, Charles Duke comes across as an honest, humble man telling what appears to be a truthful account of being an astronaut and traveling to land on the moon and living to tell the story. He’s part of the generation of military men with ice water in their veins living a life on the edge of death. He was a jet fighter pilot, test pilot and lunar module pilot, ending his career as a Brigadier General in the Air Force.
Duke’s interview with Beck is worth a look. Link below.
There is one clip that stood out to me even though it’s something I had learned about regarding Apollo 17 a few years ago. In this clip Charles Duke described how difficult it was to see the earth from their location when it was near the moon’s equator. Apollo 17 also landed near the equator as well. More on that below. Listen to what Charley had to say.
Duke describes a detail in this clip that every astronomer should know and never says. If you are on the moon near the equator the earth will be positioned directly overhead. Due to the orbital mechanics, the earth from the moon will always be in a fixed position. The earth rise seen in still photos and films is from orbit which gives the illusion of the earth rising. Duke did point out that he could get a glimpse if he angled himself on the moon buggy or used a periscope. An astronaut would have to lie on his back (not recommended) to actually get a good view. However, everything he describes about not being able to get a good look at the earth is factually correct.
Apollo 16 is located 9˚ south of the moon’s equator. Apollo 17 is located 20˚ north of the moon’s equator. So while Duke can’t look straight up and find the earth, likewise the crew of Apollo 17 shouldn’t either, let alone capture an image of it. Yet here it is.
Here are two images from Apollo 17. Both of them should not have been taken. The most egregious is the image on the right featuring the large boulder. Not only is the earth in the wrong location but it’s too small. The earth is 3.67 times larger than the moon. In this image, and likewise in another photo to the left, it appears as the equivalent of looking at the moon from the earth. And importantly, as already stated the earth is in the wrong location in the lunar sky.
In the image on the left taken of Harrison Schmitt by Eugene Cernan. An amazing photo from a chest mounted camera lacking a proper viewfinder such as featured on a standard Hasselblad camera. Once again the earth is in the wrong place and too small. Add to that the angle Cernan would have to use to get this composition. Most likely, he would have to bend backwards a bit and teeter on the edge of falling backwards to make the shot. How he got this angle is a mystery unless he removed the camera from the brackets and winged it and got lucky to get the composition using the law of thirds. There were, after all, a succession of images shot with the flag.
On the other side of this Leonid Konovalov, Associate Professor of the Camera Department of the Russian State University of Cinematography, thinks there was no luck at all but instead views the flag image as a composite of several images. See the Aulis link below.
It’s ironic the title of Charles Duke’s interview with Glenn Beck was titled, “Apollo Legend DEBUNKS Moon Landing Theories”. Actually, Duke added to the controversy by inadvertently pointing where the earth was located in the lunar sky if one lands at the moon’s equator. This in turn, points out the flaws in photographs taken by the crew of Apollo 17 who also landed near the equator. Their images are incorrect. Every astronomer has to know this. If they actually did the moon landings, why fake images? Unless the film was damaged by the radiation since their cameras had no radiation shielding in them (the vacuum can cause damage as well) and they needed to replace the ruined images with staged recreations.
Or, it’s just one big fake out.
Sources
Glenn Beck interview with Charles Duke. “Apollo Legend DEBUNKS Moon Landing Theories”.
Bart Sibel and Charles Duke Face Off on the Danny Jones podcast.
Charles Duke Biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Duke
Apollo 17 (AS17-134-20384)
https://www.aulis.com/incon16.htm
‘Shadows’ in the Lunar Sky? by Leonid Konovalov
https://www.aulis.com/apollo_sky.htm
Landing zones for Apollo 16 and Apollo 17
https://lroc.im-ldi.com/images/938
Some images sourced from NASA. Image use under CCL noncommercial usage and fair usage.