Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy and dated history, with sources. Documented traditions and folklore. Modern lunar astrology · symbolic, not predictive.

2 August 1971 Waxing Gibbous, 81% lit

A hammer and a feather, dropped together

At the end of the last moonwalk of Apollo 15, David Scott held out a geology hammer and a falcon feather and let go of both at once.

They hit the dust together, on live television, which is Galileo's argument settled in a place with no air to spoil it. Scott's line was that it made Mr Galileo's findings correct. The camera was being operated from Houston, with a delay, and it caught it.

Date
2 August 1971
Moon computed for
20:00 local time, UTC
Phase
Waxing Gibbous
Illuminated
81%

Source: Apollo 15 Preliminary Science Report, NASA SP-289

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