Monday, November 19, 2007

Magnificent Desolation


Just when I thought I'd have to wait until February/08 to watch Astronauts walk on the Moon I happened to be surfing the net and found a newly released DVD called " Magnificent Desolation Walking on the Moon ", it's tag line being, "Only 12 have walked on the moon, YOU'RE NEXT". So within a half hour I had picked it up and double bonus just as I arrived at Rogers they were unpacking Guitar Hero III for the PS3 which I picked up for my boss, you can not find this game anywhere in town, so killing two birds with one stone made both of us happy and made 10 bucks in the process, the tip from the Boss. The movie is Narrated by Tom Hanks and you can't go wrong with Tom Hanks as a narrator, second only to James Earl Jones in this category, oh and both Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are the executive producers.

Buzz Aldrin the second man to walk on the Moon and the Apollo 11 Lunar Module pilot actually coined the phrase "A Magnificent Desolation" when he stepped on the Moon , magnificent for the ability of man being able to go to the Moon and desolation for the extreme desolation of the Moon. There is a lot of rarely seen footage on this DVD, some of the astronauts would be walking along just talking to capcom (capsule communications from Earth) when they would trip over a rock or just trip up and fall, quite funny the amount of times this would happen, never saw this on the live versions. Another very interesting thing I learned from this DVD is that the Moon played visual tricks on the astronauts, because there was no buildings or trees on the Moon the astronauts perspective was out of sync, they had a hard time telling how big or far away things were, example, Capcom was asking the Apollo 15 astronauts about how far away they were from Hadley Rille, they replied they weren't too sure but estimated about 50 metres, right after that they were surprised when the edge gave way and it started to slope down to the bottom of the Rille, now Hadley Rille is a gorge comparable to the Grand Canyon, yet they couldn't see it coming, I found that very interesting and as they put it they had to be very careful because of it.
Overall a very good movie, if you like the Moon and space travel it is a no brainer pick it up.


There is a newly released computer network sharing program called Cosmology at Home. Works on the same principle as SETI at Home, you donate your computer's free time, resources and bandwidth for the greater good of either looking for aliens as with SETI or help solving the mysteries of the universe with cosmology at home. Some of the things you will be helping research with cosmology at home are items such as the universe acceleration, distribution of galaxies and fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, right now as I'm doing this post I am also looking for new pulsars as well as aliens, no flys on me! All you do is go to their web site and download their interface a program called Boinc and you're good to go. You don't have to do aliens or cosmology stuff there's numerous research programs you can help with, such as temperature patterns if you're in to global warming, to researching malaria.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll definitely check "Cosmology at Home" out! Thanks Bob. Interesting stuff .... great post as usual.
~JD

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks JD, I think you'll find something at Berkley that will work for you, very interesting stuff you can be a part of.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bob, and thanks for an other great post with the latest info about the Moon's DVD, and I'll be downloading Boinc and see what else I could do. Have a great week ahead and I'll be checking for more news from you ;)

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Tatiana, glad you like the post, should be able to find something more for you to help out with at Bonic.

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Bob,

Thanks for the heads up on Magnificent Desolation!!! I looove learning more about the moon.

Wish I didn't have slow dial up so I could participate with one of those programs.

Hugs, JJ

Bob Johnson said...

Hi JJ glad you like to learn more about our Moon, it was a very good show, loved it, your right the Boinc will do a job on your dial up.

Lynda Lehmann said...

As always, Bob, your post is full of good information! I'd LOVE to participate with the research, but since I'm domestically challenged and generally overwhelmed with my current projects, I'd better not!

franx said...

This program look nice Bob.. "Cosmology at home"

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, thanks Lynda,I know what you mean, sometimes you just have to pick and choose the stuff your best at, just so much out there.

Bob Johnson said...

Hi franx budi, it is a pretty interesting and cool thing to be involved in.

Swubird said...

Great post Bob. I will definitely see Astronauts Walk on the Moon. Thanks also for the tip on Sputnik's Birthday program on A&E. I watched it last Wednesday. It was well worth the time.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Watashi Alamo, glad you liked the A&E Sputnik special, you'll like the Magnificent Desolation movie as well.

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Hi Bob, :D I heard that Comet Holmes grew a larger coma than the sun's size. Can you update us on what's happening now?

Thanks, JJ

Bob Johnson said...

Hi JJ, you read my mind. Comet Holmes is getting bigger in the sky then the Sun and is actually further, I will be taking a picture of it for an update next Monday, thanks for asking!

Peter said...

Hi! from someone that cares. Love the post and the fantastic images. Thank you.

Regards
Peter McCartney
Sydney Australia

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Peter, appreciate your kind words!

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Yay! for the update on Comet Holmes. :D

Hugs, JJ

Bob Johnson said...

Just for you JJ!