Nearly five decades ago, American astronauts flew to the moon, safely landed and walked over the lunar surface, then returned triumphantly back to Earth. The Apollo 11 moon landing has been voted the most memorable television event of the 20th century, but do NASA's claims of evidence of the event stand up to scrutiny? Marcus Allen, photographer and the UK publisher of NEXUS Magazine, joined guest host Richard Syrett to discuss why an increasing number of people now question if the thousands of photographs were really taken on the moon or during training exercises on Earth.
Allen detailed some of the limitations of film cameras and how lighting would have been a major issue for the astronauts to overcome on the lunar surface. In order to light a backlit object in shadow, such as an astronaut descending the lunar lander, there must be a secondary source of light, a flash or reflector, which the they did not have with them, he explained. "There's not enough light being reflected for that film (Kodak Kodachrome transparency film) to record the detail we see in the photograph," he said.
Another problematic issue for Allen is the quality and composition of the photographs. The astronauts were essentially shooting their chest-mounted Hasselblad cameras blind, and could make no adjustments to focus, shutter speed, or aperture while donning an awkward space suit and gloves, he revealed. "How many times would you expect to be able to take a good photograph, correctly exposed, correctly focused, with the right shutter speed, pointing it with your body, and not cut heads off or not get things out of focus," he questioned.
Allen covered the importance of bracketing—taking a photo with the camera's recommended settings, one intentionally underexposed, and another that is overexposed—to ensure a good exposure from a subject that cannot be metered. "There's no evidence that I have ever seen that bracketing was done on [Apollo photographs]," he said. Allen also thinks it odd the Earth is rarely seen in lunar photographs. "I think they forgot [about it]," he proposed. According to Allen, the Apollo missions had nothing to do with getting to the moon but instead were a brilliantly executed exercise to bankrupt the Soviet Union.
Trump Presidency
First hour guest, political scientist Joel Skousen offered analysis on the Trump presidency and his war with the media. "The left wing in the United States are really sore losers," he said, adding that in his opinion the media has lost all sense of neutrality in its coverage of Trump. Skousen is confounded by the complaints given many of the promises mentioned in Trump's inauguration speech follow the pattern of FDR's left-wing agenda. "[Trump] promised the whole store to everyone," Skousen said, suggesting it will be impossible to fulfill. He noted how Trump has already compromised on a great many of the pledges he made on the campaign trail. Skousen also explained whom among Trump's cabinet are globalists, why radical Islamic ideology is not a threat to western civilization (they don't produce their own arms), and how ISIS was created in six months out of a US-British operation.