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BABlog reader Fernando Rodriguez at San Luis PotosÃ, México, pointed out to me an image (via digg.com) of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon… sorta. It’s actually an amazingly rendered computer graphic by Andrea Bertaccini, obviously a very talented computer artist. I could tell right away it was fake; on the real one you can see lunar dust all over Aldrin’s suit. There are other telltale signs. Can you figure them out? The comments on digg.com have lots of hints, and a side-by-side comparison of the real image and the artwork.
The computer image was posted on the CG Society of Digital Artists forum, and in fact they have a huge number of incredibly cool images there. Go take a look.’
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
The first thing that made me go “hmmmâ€: the astronauts watch is showing the ubiquitous “smiley-time†of 10:10
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:17 am
Oh, and the extra astronaut on the moon!!!
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:34 am
OK, I’m wrong. I just looked at the original picture, and apparently what I thought was a third man on the moon is actually in the original: it looks like the American Flag. There seems to be two standing frames and both of which look like the flag, I’m referring to the one towards the end of the long shadow?
Anyhow, apart from the clean suit and the lack of depth in the wrinkles in it, the image of the astronaut appears to have had a fill-in flash to soften the shadows, it also looks grain-less compared to the original?
March 23rd, 2006 at 3:35 am
1. I think there is an extra astronaut in this picture: the photographer, the subject, and the guy in the reflection of the helmet (this is definitely an astronaut, and cannot be the photographer, as he has his own separate shadow).
2. The cross-hairs don’t bleed.
3. There’s a “$1.50″ sign in the moon dust (bottom left corner).
Other than that, I don’t know (I haven’t put the original next to it, since that would be cheating…)
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:11 am
Well, the only difference I can see between this one and the original is that the original looks faded, which is what I would expect from such an old picture. Apart from this, I can’t see anything fake about the fake.
This will undoubtedly spark a new wave of conspiracy theories, I’m sure. Soon we’ll have people saying that the moon hoax was itself a hoax, and that the landings were not faked in 1969, but in 2005!
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:13 am
And to think that SciFi movies in the 60’s assumed we would have thinking robots by now but would not have computer graphics better than those from Pacman…
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:43 am
Just two astronauts, and two shadows. (The sun is at Aldrin’s back; it’s his own shadow that’s prominently visible in the helmet reflection.)
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:07 am
… but why bother ? what was wrong with the original true image ??
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:44 am
One tell-tale sign: the CG Aldrin is wearing an embroidered Apollo 11 patch; the real Aldrin wore a silk-screened beta cloth version.
Embroidered patches were not worn by any crew during Apollo as a result of lessons learned from the Apollo 1 fire. The sewn patches were however vacuum packed and carried onboard as post-flight souvenirs.
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:53 am
D’oh! Of course you’re right, Brion. Never do anything before morning coffee…
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:34 am
All someone needs to do is render the ladder descent by Armstrong as it would appear on a 525 30fps colour camera. Animation anyone?
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:49 am
So the moon landing WAS faked!!! I KNEW IT!!!
*reels from a sucker punch from Buzz*
Okay, okay, was just kidding…
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:41 am
PK, you seem to think the prominent shadow in the middle of the reflection is from the photographer. This is incorrect. That is Buzz’s shadow. Armstrong is the photographer, and he is the astronaut in the background of the reflection. Perspective is skewed because of the curve of the helmet. It looks like that astronaut is too far back, but in fact he is not.
Kuwaiti Demon, there are two items that look like flags, but only one is a flag. That is the one nearest Armstrong’s reflection, positioned in the sky (it looks free floating since the pole doesn’t show up well in the reflection). The other “flag” is actually the Solar Wind Experiment. This is a strip of mylar stretched vertically. The mylar is slightly warped, causing the top part to reflect sunlight toward the camera but the lower part is not and blends into the background of the dirt. Ergo, it looks like a flag.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:08 am
What a nice image.
Here is a low res. view of the original….http://web.mit.edu/16.00/www/aec/images/Suits/apollosuit5.gif
The shadows are an obvious problem, as per a prior post.
The lunar soil color would not likely be so different in the reflection off the visor.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:01 am
Count the stars on the flag patch on his shoulder….
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:07 am
Irishman: I already conceded my stupidity on that one.
Thomas: 50, as it should be… or were there less states in ‘69?
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:34 am
No, I just wanted to see if someone had counted them, I’m too lazy….
Sorry……..
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:41 am
The image is too sharp, and the lighting is (subjectively) too good. kind of vague, but it’s hard to quantify. The outline of the suit is extremely sharp, and the white balance renders the suit a near perfect color. In short, there aren’t enough flaws, at least, that’s my take.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:54 am
Nope, that’s it, I refuse to stare more at those two pictures comparing them.
Just tell me; what’s wrong with this picture? http://img98.imageshack.us/my.php?image=moonba4ij.jpg
March 23rd, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Irishman: yes, I remember now – the experiments of the first Apollo lunar landing included the foil for the solar wind. I looked up information on the missions landing site (Source:Lunar Sourcebook, Heiken, Vaniman & French – 1991), and I have scanned the appropriate map and uploaded it to Flickr:
http://static.flickr.com/47/116884350_cb560e858f_o.jpg
Where:
LM: Landing Module
ALSCC: Apollo Lunar Surface Close-up Camera
SWC: Solar Wind Composition Experiment
PSE: Passive Seismic Experiment
LRRR: Laser Ranging Retroreflector
TV: TV Camera
OK, IMHO I still say the weakest aspects – aside from the clean suit – are the lighting as well as the flat wrinkles and the watch, both of which appear to have been painted on the suit.
But it is still a stunning image!
March 23rd, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Just goes to show that we finally have the technology to fake moon landings in 1969.
March 23rd, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Nobody has pointed out there’s something wrong with the glove on his right hand (the down one). Look at the thumb and pinky.
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Thomas Siefert Says:
Just tell me; what’s wrong with this picture? http://img98.imageshack.us/my.php?image=moonba4ij.jpg
Well, that BA guy is obviously too clumsy to have ever qualified for NASA’s programmes…
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:28 pm
I wonder how many people are aware that Alan Bean, who was on the Apollo 12 mission, later became a full-time artist. Most of his paintings these days deal with the Apollo missions. Go have a look at his website:
http://www.alanbeangallery.com/
No, he is not paying me to make this post.
March 24th, 2006 at 6:17 am
I think George is forgeting the reason why the color of the soil is different in the visor view.It is because it has a gold coating as part of the Solar filter.
Ivan.
March 24th, 2006 at 7:31 am
The biggest (for me at least) clue is the heads of the rivets on his suit. The reflected image is always basically the same. There SHOULD, however, be foreground objects reflected in them, blocking part of the pitch black sky. For instance, just to the right of the wristwatch is one which would certainly have the right hand/arm reflected in it. To the right of the helmet is another which would have the helmet blocking part of the sky.
Irishman:
There IS something wrong with that right hand, but not just the thumb & pinkie, it’s all the fingers, the wrinkles of the fabric aren’t “right” somehow. The shadows are a tad too dark…
Rich
March 24th, 2006 at 7:34 am
OK, now I’ve spotted a bit of folding in the thumb & index finger of that hand which is the same bit of image, cloned in PhotoShop. Ouch! She could easily have done something freehand to cover this…
Rich
March 24th, 2006 at 8:19 am
The hand looks flat, not curved. The thumb looks even with the rest of the hand, not offset like it should be. Yes, the wrinkles look off, and repeated. But I think the not-curved hand is more telling than repeated wrinkles.
March 24th, 2006 at 8:46 am
All I can say is WOW!!!
The early birds got all the good lines.
March 24th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
icemith, there is a subtle difference. I knew of the visors color.
Notice in the following image how the reflection seen, barely, on the far right side is not so gold in color.
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/luceneweb/fullimage.jsp?photoId=S69-31743
Also, here is another image which does show the gold color, but, notice how everything is golden (contrary to the rendered image).
Also, notice the lunar soil is blue, due to light from the host blue sun (ok, I’m joking on that one).
March 24th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
oops, the second image wasn’t entered…sorry
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0212/as17-140-21391.jpg
March 27th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
George, I’m not sure I follow you. Note that in your first linked pic, that shows the Apollo helmet *without the sunscreen*. You can see through the clear face shield, and see the head rest in the back of the helmet. That picture is irrelevant for the moon images, because the visor is down for those pictures.
Compare to the High Res original image here:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/as11-40-5903HR.jpg
The soil in the reflection shows the same characteristic of being more golden than the non-reflection soil. In fact, the only thing in the reflection that really stands out to me is the very near reflections at the bottom – the arm and controls for the suit. Look closely – the suit controls have knobs on top of the box, but in the reflection the knobs are missing. Notice also the difference in the shape of the hand.
April 4th, 2006 at 10:42 am
Hi at All
Thanks for all commets obout my image
Here you can find the real comparsion:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=91095
Best regards
August 4th, 2006 at 1:31 am
I know this is waaay late, but… in regard to the overall “golden cast” of the shadows and objects in the pictures, it’s because the light which fills in the shadows is reflected from the gold foil insulation on the LEM, which as you can see from the reflection in the visor, is brightly lit by the sun. The function of the foil is to reflect up to 50% of the sun’s energy from the spacecraft thus protecting it from the intense heat. The gold foil is what’s lighting the front of Aldrin’s spacesuit, much like a “fill-in flash” is used in normal photography to lighten shadows when you’re photographing in the direction of the sun.
This same golden cast can be seen in other photos taken in the vicinity of the LEM, but it’s most apparent in this well-known picture.