Found In Space
Interview with Warren Harold
By Telstar Logistics
3 Jan 2008
JPG contributor Warren Harold has had photos published in JPG issues 7 and 9, but when I learned about his day job at NASA, I had to know more. At NASA, Warren is working on a special project to create vast panoramas that depict the Apollo moon landings in exquisite detail. How does he do it? That's just what I wanted to find out.
Where do these pictures come from?
The images were captured by the Apollo astronauts on the lunar surface. With no viewfinder, they simply stood in place and turned, capturing intermittent frames. The camera would occasionally be tilted up or down to account for changes in the landscape.
What kind of cameras did they use?
The imagery used for the panoramas was captured using a modified 70mm Hasselblad EL Data camera that was bracket-mounted to the front of the astronaut's spacesuit.
How are the photos archived at NASA?
The original flight film is stored in a freezer at 0° F. The freezer itself is in a refrigerator which is kept at 55° F. To remove the film from the vault, a 48-hour, two-stage procedure is required to acclimate the film to room temperature.
What are you doing with the photos?
Until now, all of the images from the Apollo missions were second and third generation dupes, so a joint-project is currently in progress with Arizona State University to produce high-resolution scans of all the original Apollo film. The new scans look as though they were taken yesterday!
We've also received requests to stitch together the lunar panoramas. After trying a few automated methods, I decided that doing it manually in Photoshop is best way to go. As an extra challenge, I also have to work around the Reseau reticles or "crosshairs" that exist on each frame — NASA used these to calculate accurate distance measurements between points. So far we've put together 24 panoramas of the landing sites from Apollo 11-12 and 14-17, as well as a few of the geological stations.
Has working with these photos changed the way you think of the moon landings?
I was born in September of 1969, so I only know a world where man has had a presence on the moon. It's something that people my age take for granted. But working with these new scans at this level of detail really brings the experience close to home. What strikes me the most is the sense of scale. Piecing these together frame by frame, I often get lost in the details. Yet when I step back to look at the overall image it's really overwhelming.
Is there one image that's become your favorite?
It would have to this one (shown below) from Apollo 17. It was one of the first panoramas I put together, and it portrays just how surreal man's presence looks such an uninhabited and foreign space.
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