reply to post by scobro
The images of the vehicle ascending from the moon were planned, the guy who was responsible calculated the time delay in the broadcast, I think it was
something like 2 seconds, anyhow they had to send the command to tilt the camera up for the shot, 2 seconds before the Module blasted off.
The documentary I saw about the Apollo missions, had him interviewed, and that was one of the questions asked, he said he couldn't sleep the night
before, because it was to be a spectacular shot, I don't think it was done until Apollo 14?
Anyhow, from what I remember, he had to make a last second adjustment for 1000 thousandth or some thing close to a minute adjustment to allow for the
acceleration and keep it in the frame, there was a slight stutter towards the end of one of the recordings, a very small number adjustment took
something like a 20,000 th of a second adjustment to catch up, before losing sight of the module because of the maximum tilt.
But it was a very much thought out shot, calculated to the second in tandem with the launch, with a short delay, and synchronizing it exactly with the
launch.
If you think about it, even though it is justs Math, it is still an incredibly fantastic achievement, a moment I would be proud of for the rest of my
life, if it had been my assignment.
If you think about it, he would have been one of only a few people people not to have seen that moment live, inside The Command Center he would have
had to concentrate on the numbers being sent to the camera, no way he could have done it watching the launch, he would have to have been in front of a
screen flashing numbers at him, so he could try and adjust at the last second.
Over thinking sorry..