Remembering Tranquility Base. 
It's been 45 years since we heard those famous words announcing that humans had finally reached another world:
"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
When mission commander Neil Armstrong finally took the "small step," I was watching in the Fillmore West in San Francisco. In a corner of the huge concert hall they had a large screen showing man’s first steps on the moon. The activities at Tranquility Base fit right in with the light show.
Where were you when Armstrong took that the "giant leap for mankind?"
The following video is NASA's restored broadcast of the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the surface of the moon.
NASA reminds us that the Apollo 11 (EVA) began at 10:39:33 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969 when Astronaut Neil Armstrong emerged from the spacecraft first. While descending, he released the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly on the Lunar Module's descent stage. A camera on this module provided live television coverage of man's first step on the Moon. During this first visit to the Moon, the astronauts remained within about 100 meters of the lunar module, collected about 47 pounds of samples, and deployed four experiments. After spending approximately 2 hours and 31 minutes on the surface, the astronauts ended the EVA at 1:11:13 a.m. EDT on July 21.
Photos: One) Aldrin Looks Back at Tranquility Base - Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin was photographed by mission commander Neil Armstrong. In the foreground is the Passive Seismic Experiment Package; beyond it is the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector; in the far right background is the Lunar Module "Eagle."Two) A close-up view of an astronaut's bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon. Image credit: NASA
I remember that day 40 years ago, I had my 35mm setup on a tripod in front of the T.V. with a 1/30 sec. speed. Got some great shots which I still have. Was teaching History at that time. Found your site via twitter. Looks great. Visit me sometime at TOTUS and my sister site Obama Cartoons, both are PR4 sites and if you like what you see there drop me a comment and I'll add you to blog roll there.
Posted by: Ron Russell | Monday, July 20, 2009 at 06:38 AM