I used to think the moon landing was fake because of the flag... then I saw a video from my kid's science class.

For years, I argued the flag waving in a vacuum was proof. My daughter had a school project last month, and the teacher showed a slow-motion clip of the astronauts twisting the pole to plant it. The 'wave' was just the fabric settling after they let go... it never moved on its own. I felt pretty dumb for not checking that first. Anyone else have a go-to piece of 'evidence' that fell apart under a simple check?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant_wilson723mo ago

Man, the shadows got me for a while. I saw those photos with weird angles and thought, "That's not right." Then I learned about a wide-angle lens on a flat, bright surface. It distorts everything, makes close shadows look long and stretched. The sun was the only light source up there. It checks out. Felt like a real fool after that one.

skylerm5518d ago

The flag thing is what always tripped me up too, actually. So I hear you on feeling a bit foolish after finding out the simple truth. @grant_wilson72's point about the shadows and the wide-angle lens is a good one, makes you realize how easy it is to see what you want to see. My go-to was always the missing stars in the photos, I thought it was a big cover-up. Then I found out the camera settings for the bright lunar surface just couldn't capture the faint stars at the same time. Felt pretty dumb for not just looking up "why are there no stars in moon photos" for ten years.

dakota1603mo ago

That slow-motion flag video is convincing for sure. I still find the Van Allen radiation belts a hard point to ignore though, @grant_wilson72. The explanation about the short transit time and the ship's shell just doesn't feel complete to me.