Well as to the "original" images tha we all watched. The images were broadcast from the Moon to the Deep Space Network and from there to JPL and to Houston and the networks wih image degradation all along the way. The best quality would have been those received by the Deep space network , and believe it or not it seems those tapes were erased, shades of Hollywood and the way they used to treat film and TV. The images as they were transmitted from the mmoon consisted of only 300 lines of resolution, the NTSC standard of the time was 525 so.....as historically important as they were the quality was poor. At best.

Unicus, be careful about When we left Earth: The NASA missions, they are great and i have watched parts of them, however I suspect there are some errors in there which have become popularized over the years and some things that have plain been ignored. One of myfavorites that seldom gets heard about anymore is Apollo 10. The mission was to simulate a lunar landing and launch back up to the CSM. The descent went perfectly, but when Pete Conrad fired the ascent engine something went dreadfully wrong and the LEM flew out of control to within five miles of the lunar surface before control was regained,. Of course, the crew was on OPEN Mike. There was a metal console between Pete Conrad and his Co-Pilot, a loud bang was heard as Pete kicked the console and put a dent in it, BTW, and ummmm he let out witna string of expletives, which i will leave to your imagination. The funny part about this was a few days later NASA received a letter from a lady in Nebraska, as I recall, that chided them for Pete's language. I remember some of the reporters talkning about this incident , laughing and saying yeah, right life and death, spinning out of control...Gee Whiz Houston are we in trouble now.          

One of the popular misconceptions is traceacle to Tom Wolfe, yes The Right Stuff.  Tom writes in his book that John glenn wasbrought down early and that his mission was scheduled for 6 orbits, which is simply untrue. John Glenn's mission was scheduled for THREE orbits and went the full distance. The confusion arises because in the Mercury and Gemini missions the first  Ground to space communication would be "Roger, you are go for 6 orbits". It had absolutely nothig to do with the mission at hand.

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Watching the original 1969 news broadcast on History Channel right now, they flashed the time on screen as 10:56 p.m EDT...I had forgotten how bad the image quality was.

From what I have read this was due to the fact that the TV cameras were actually pointed at a monitor and that was the image that we saw on our TV. 

What where they doing for six hours? Crosswords?

Well, I guess count the cows would be out.

At least no back seat passaengers asking if we're there yet!

"The Eagle has landed" comes at 102h:45m:58s mission elapsed time.

"That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind."  comes at 109h:24m:48s mission elapsed time

So it was nearly seven hours of prep (including donning the suits and making sure they worked properly as well as making observations and running the many checklists).  There was supposed to be a rest period in there before the EVA but Buzz and Neil agreed there was no way they could rest so they got the OK to do the EVA and skip the rest period.
(all from the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal:  http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/  )

I met Buzz Aldrin a few years ago and said, "We could hardly stand the suspense for all the time that you were sitting on the surface before you got out onto the moon."  He replied, "Well, we were busy, so that helped.  If we missed something on the checklists, we might not be coming back.  That focuses your mind."  He confirmed that they skipped the rest period though.


Space dork that I am, last night I watched the Spacecraft Films DVD of the entire moonwalk while reading the ALSJ along with it to make out what they're saying.  It's amazing just how cautious Apollo 11 was: they only walked on the moon a little over 2 hours, and if you put the LM on the pitcher's mound of a baseball diamond they never went beyond the foul territory by 1st, 3rd and home, except for a quick run to short center field by Neil for a panoramic set of photos.  A lot of effort for not much time on the moon.  They made up for that with the J missions (Apollo 15-17), with the Rover.

Quoting Dr. Killpatient:

Quote:
Myth Busters did a show on these conspiracy theories and deemed it "Plausible".

They replayed the 'NASA Moon Landing' episode last night and I found it quite interesting.  The myth that I really wanted an answer to, about the flag not being able to wave in a vacuum, was particularly interesting.  As it turns out, the lack of an atmosphere actually causes the flag to move around a lot more.

Anyway, they busted every single conspiracy myth they looked at...not that I had any doubts.

Well here's a couple of goodies that the Conspiracy FOOLS have never bothered to deal with. Analysis of the glass beads which make up lunar regolith has proven that they were (1)formed in a vacuum (2) have been bombarded by solar radiation which does not reach the surface of the earth and (3)are 3.5 Billion Years Old, the oldest volcanic bead found on earth is about 165 Million Years old, Earths environment breaks them down.

Firther at least three of the missions left behind laser-ranging experiments, we bounce a laser beam off the device and we can accurately measure the distance to the moon. Wee, those mirrors are still there and being used approxmately 200 times per year 40 years later.

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Quoting Jubal:

Quote:
Gard:

You're right. gard. it was Gene that kicked the console and let forth...Forty years ago, one of the funnier NASA tales i recall.

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Quite right. I am reading Gene Cernan's "Last Man on the Moon" at the moment (highly recommendable!) and he talks about the Apollo 10 incident when the LM spun out of control. Cernan understandable did a bit of cursing during those seconds (he was scared to death, he says - not often you hear that from an astronaut). Apparantly the cursing caused quite a stir in the press when they came home and NASA finally forced him to apologize, which he did reluctantly. I believe his words were something like: "For those who took offense, I apologise, for those who understand me, I thank you".

BTW, NASA engineers later calculated that had they kept spinning in the LM for two more seconds, they would have crashed into the moon.