Moon Shadows Frustrate Astronauts

saskboy writes "Apollo Chronicles by NASA talk about moon shadows and how they are much darker than daytime shadows on Earth. This is because there is almost no light reflected from atmosphere molecules or secondary light sources like "earthshine". "It is very easy to see in the shadows after you adapt for a while," noted Armstrong. But, added Aldrin, "continually moving back and forth from sunlight to shadow should be avoided because it's going to cost you some time in perception ability." Working on the moon even in the daylight might present unique problems not typically encountered on earth, if visual coordination in a shadow riddled area is required for a task. Audio of the NASA article is also available."

Comments

The solution is obviously

[Centurix]

Leaping and hopping

Re:The solution is obviously

[Philip K Dickhead]

I'm being followed by a moon shadow
Moon shadow moon shadow
Leaping and hopping on a moon shadow
Moon shadow moon shadow
And if I ever lost my hands
Lose my plough, lose my land
Oh, if I ever lose my hands- Oh, if...
I wont have to work no more
And if I ever lose my eyes
If my colours all run dry
Yes if I ever lose my eyes,I won't have to cry no more.
Yes, I'm being followed by a moon shadow
Moon shadow moon shadow
Leaping and hopping on a moonshadow
Moon shadow moon shadow
And if I ever lose my legs
I won't moan and I won't beg
Oh if I ever lose my legs- Oh if...
I won't have to walk no more
And if I ever lose my mouth
All my teeth, north and south
Yes, if I ever lose my mouth- Oh if...
I won't have to talk...
Did it take long to find me
I ask the faithful light
Did it take long to find me
And are you going to stay the night
I'm being followed by a moon shadow
Moon shadow moon shadow
Moon shadow moon shadow
Moon shadow moon shadow

Science Class

[MBCook]

Why don't they ever tell you stuff like this in science class?

This obviously isn't new, and there is no way it was classified.

These are the kind of things that can help make science interesting. Being able to imagine what it is like on the moon, and interesting stories. That thing about they thought it was a 40 degree slope when it was a light trick and only 10. I would remember that. It would also go to show that science is fallible. No one thought of that before they got there. We still discover new things accidently. This kind of stuff can get kids interested in science.

But instead, we teach them Boyle's Law and Newton's Three Laws. Both are important, but it seems like they taught that to me in middle school. And then later in middle school. Then in high school. Then in high school again. Then in college. And that is just in physics classes (it's in Math textbooks to be used as examples too). Now while I understand repeating it between middle school and college, and teaching it again in college based on Calculus to do more demanding/interesting problems, so much of the science classes I've had are just "memorize these things (again)." Interesting stories like this just don't get talked about.

Solution?

[Sparr0]

For single-purpose activities this is just something to live with, but if there is going to be extended activity in the same area then why not hang white curtains around the work site? They should reflect back enough light to create earth-ish contrast shadows. Just have to knock down one side of the circle of curtains around sunrise/sunset.

Sing along with me

[Claire-plus-plus]

I'm being followed by a moon shadow Moon shadow moon shadow...

Moon shadows frustrate photographers

[Sockatume]

"Parallel, curse you, you're meant to be parallel!"

How about?

[chord.wav]

Having helmets with lights in the forehead?
Every science fiction movie worth of mention has space suits with lights in their helmets

Re:Welding masks

[drinkypoo]

Welders lie to you. Or at least, they don't tell you the whole story. Now, presumably we're all talking about arc welding here. If you're doing gas welding then you probably have goggles with about shade 5 lenses. If you're doing arc, that's 9 or 10. For doing arc, you can get a hood with some sort of power source, and some sort of light sensor. They start out at a shade 5 and go up to shade 10 (or whatever is necessary) automatically when you weld. Thus, you get the best of both worlds - you can see what you're doing, AND you have protection. A lot of them are actually solar, and you keep them charged by just keeping them someplace exposed to light. They can also use the solar panel to detect the amount of light. The shade is achieved through the use of an LCD with a filter polarized to normally pass light.

There are also IR-vision goggles with light blocking; they have some kind of LCD matrix over the lens, and they detect bright lights and block them out so they don't overload the image sensor.