and
other unique footage
Click here for
some more information on the DVD contents. (updated)
DVD 2.
The Moonwalks as seen
at Honeysuckle Creek (launched in Canberra on March 16 2006.)
Honeysuckle Creek
Tracking Station was one of the three main stations built by NASA
to support the lunar phases of the Apollo missions.
It was through Honeysuckle Creek
that the world saw Neil Armstrong step onto the Moon in July 1969.
At
Honeysuckle’s video console, Senior Video Tech, Ed von Renouard,
processed the television coming in from Tranquillity Base before it
went out to the world.
On the day of the Apollo 11
Moonwalk, Ed used his Super 8 movie camera to record the
activity at the tracking station – as well as TV from the Moon
(in real time and also from telemetry and videotape afterwards).
Ed took his camera to Honeysuckle
throughout the Apollo missions and also captured Lunar TV during Apollos
16 and 17 and EVA TV during Skylab.
In mid-2005, Ed found his unique record of Apollo and Honeysuckle
Creek, and these DVDs are the result.
We’ve used two DVDs to minimise
video compression so as to maintain the highest possible picture quality.
The low contrast of the start of the Apollo 11 TV doesn’t take
well to MPEG compression.
The first DVD, covering
Ed’s Apollo 11 footage and also the start of the Australian TV
broadcast – unseen since 1969 – runs for around 60 minutes. The second DVD, including footage from Apollos 16, 17 and Skylab
II, runs for around 40 minutes.
Super 8 film cartridges were only
3 minutes and 20 seconds long – so most of Ed’s sequences
are short – but his film is unique and gives a glimpse into life
at Honeysuckle Creek at the peak of the Apollo Moon missions.
In hindsight, Ed wishes he’d
filmed more – but these Super 8 movies were only ever intended
to be personal souvenirs. Ed never dreamt that he would have the only
clear video of Armstrong descending the ladder, or possibly the only
recording of the backpacks being dumped after the EVA.
|
|
Still photos of the TV monitors
taken by Ed von Renouard. |
Of special interest on these
DVDs
Apollo 11
• Neil Armstrong descends
the ladder – as it was only seen at the tracking stations.
(See the preview above. Ed didn’t catch the first step,
but by that stage the worldwide TV broadcast was using the picture
Ed was receiving at Honeysuckle.)
• Possibly the only
surviving recording of both Apollo 11 PLSS backpacks being
dumped after the Moonwalk.
• The start of the Apollo
11 Moonwalk as was broadcast only in Australia. (Houston was distributing the darker picture from Goldstone initially.)
• An 8 minute segment that explains
what happened to the television on the day of the Moonwalk –
and why Australians saw the best TV of all. :-)
• A side by side comparison of: the
NASA Archive footage, the Honeysuckle Super 8 footage and the
start of the EVA as was actually broadcast in Australia. (The NASA Archive footage was the best available until our work on the restoration, which was completed in late December 2009.)
• See how “the
first step” would have looked if the camera hadn’t
been mounted on a tilt inside the MESA.
And for more background on the Apollo 11 TV,
see this
section – and also stills
taken of the TV monitors at Honeysuckle.
Other material includes
• A drive from Canberra to Honeysuckle in 1967 or 1968.
• Alan Shepard’s visit to Honeysuckle
Creek in 1968.
• Film of the TV monitors at Honeysuckle
during Apollos 16 and 17 in 1972 – showing what
the raw TV looked like before it was cleaned up (in real time)
by Image Transform in California and then sent back to Houston
for release to the TV networks. And film of the Honeysuckle
Creek troops watching the live TV from the Moon.
• One minute of Apollo
16 TV seen at Honeysuckle and nowhere else (not even Houston!).
• Honeysuckle during Skylab II in
1973. There are shots of the grounds and the 26m antenna in
action – inside the Operations Building – and also
some (rather poor quality) EVA TV.
• Footage shot at the 35th Anniversary
of Apollo 11 lunch held in Canberra on July 21 2004.
Both PAL and NTSC versions of the
DVDs are available. (PAL is for the UK, Europe, Australia and New
Zealand and many other countries. NTSC is used in the Americas and
Japan.)
At
Honeysuckle’s video console, Senior Video Tech, Ed von Renouard,
processed the television coming in from Tranquillity Base before it
went out to the world.
