URLs for good background on Parkes, Apollo
Hi folks.
I found these two URL's and the pdf files that go into the tech detail of
what actually happened in the week leading up to the activities as
depicted in "The Dish". It's a bit on heavy tech side, but there's enough
human interest story from the folks that were actually there at Parkes,
etc. to make it interesting material. Especially as it turns out that the
original slow scan videos from Apollo have been lost!! Quite a few folks
are now involved in trying to find the original data tapes that were
recorded direct off the dish at Parkes, as well as at other locations
throughout Australia and the US. These doc's also more fairly tell the
story about the other sites involved, and also gives more detail as
to exactly who was supplying the images and when (Parkes had the best
images right from the start, but downstream decisions were made to
use other sources at first, even though they were inferior to Parkes).
And there's just some plain silly stuff, like the camera as it was
attached to the LEM being upside down, and at the last minute big
toggle switches had to be put on the earth station gear to allow the
op's to flip the image right side up, but some of them forgot...
Anyway, they're well worth the read if you're a bit interested in
what really went on that day, week in history!!
Here's the URL's:
http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/apollo11/apollo11_sstv_search_report.html
http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/apollo11/
(use the bottom one to download or read "On the Wings of Eagles")
d.