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- Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!emory!athena.cs.uga.edu!vacek
- From: vacek@athena.cs.uga.edu (George Vacek)
- Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
- Subject: Re: What's the date on the moon?
- Keywords: Apollo11 moon
- Message-ID: <1992Jul23.122752.1591@athena.cs.uga.edu>
- Date: 23 Jul 92 12:27:52 GMT
- References: <980@vk2bea.UUCP>
- Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
- Lines: 36
-
- In article <980@vk2bea.UUCP> michael@vk2bea.UUCP (Michael G. Katzmann) writes:
- >The newspapers and broadcast media were celebrating yesterday, July
- >20th as the 23rd aniversary of the first moon walk by Armstrong and
- >Aldrin of Apollo 11.
- >
- >I remember the moon walk as occuring on Monday July 21st. I was
- >in Australia in 1969, and watched it on television at around 3pm
- >(0200 GMT) July 21st. Since US EDT would be 4 hours behind this
- >( 10pm July 20th ), Americans remember July 20th as the aniversary.
- >
- >The television signals from the moon were first received on the earth
- >by the CSIRO's radio telescope at Parks, west of Sydney (Australia),
- >therefore the moon would have been over Australia at the time.
- >
- >So what is the date on the moon? One might guess that it is the
- >same as the point on the earth that it is directly above, or one
- >might conceivably use GMT (UTC) as moon time but I doubt one uses
- >US EDT. Therefore please adjust your history books to read the
- >first step on the moon took place JULY 21 1969.
- >
- >P.S. If my memory serves me correct, during the mission the used
- > G.E.T. (Ground Elapsed Time)
- >--
- I can't answer your question about the moon's date, and I think your point
- about relative aniversaries is interesting. However-
-
- By your own discussion, the *exact* 23rd aniversary of the 1st moon walk
- should be celebrated at 10pm July 20th US EDT. At that point it will be
- the 21st in Australia, exactly 23 years after reception of the signal. To be
- true to history, Americans must celebrate the aniversary on the 20th and not
- the 21st. :-)
-
- Croag
-
- vacek@athena.cs.uga.edu
- my opinions are my own. -- croag
-