The Reality Gap Part 2
The Apollo Photographic Fraud
- J. B. Deutscher
- Far Northern California 2023
“Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State.”
– James Angleton, head of CIA counter intelligence from 1954-1974
Essential to implementing the censorship directive as rationalized in Brookings, NASA would, with military and other governmental partners institute a sophisticated physical / bureaucratic security infrastructure to control what the public would see and be told of space exploration.
As an example- If, as has been claimed the Apollo 17 Lunar Excursion Module (L.E.M.) set down at Taurus Littrow in the middle of an archeological debris field with views of partially intact surface structures of various size, steps would have to be taken so the public ‘wouldn’t see.’ Absolute control of all images coming from the Moon of still, movie, and T.V. transmissions would be a must. It would also require all astronauts, NASA personnel and consulting scientists in the know to cooperate in the subterfuge. In addition, to misdirect people from learning the truth, NASA, its top scientists, and the astronauts themselves (whom the public respected) would be used as Judas Goats to lead the population of an entire planet into a false reality.
With the exception of Neil Armstrong (Mission 11) and geologist Harrison Schmitt, (Mission 17) every Apollo Astronaut were active U.S. military officers. Due to the secrecy imperative Apollo astronauts and other key personnel privy to what really was to be found on the lunar expeditions were under constant surveillance with their homes and phones “bugged.” Most Apollo astronauts were expert pilots and many being former test pilots. Disclosure was not an option. Not so curiously, two astronauts in the NASA Apollo program were killed in crashes within six weeks of one another each while flying a T-22 trainer which was statistically improbable.
The Apollo Expeditions brought with them the finest optical /camera equipment money could buy. The Command and Service module (which remained in low moon orbit as two of the three-man crew explored the surface) contained both a Fairchild Metric mapping Camera and an Itek Panoramic Camera operated on the final Mission17 by Ron Evans which continuously, and in incredible detail, photographed the lunar surface at about seventy miles above while Schmitt and Cernan explored the surface below.
The people in charge of this ultimate cynical hoax to be unleashed upon a naïve and unsuspecting world well understood the concept of Seeing is believing… of Picture proof.
On May 6, 1995 Donna Hare, (formerly Donna Tietze) a Technical Illustrator who had worked for NASA contractor Philco-Ford at the Johnson Space Center, Building 8 during the Apollo era was interviewed on a radio talk show. Building 8 was a secure facility which contained the commercial photo lab where Apollo Mission photography was processed. Tietze related several accounts giving insight as to the goings on with regard to the Apollo photos and missions. She stated that on one occasion while walking through the photo lab section she had watched a technician while he was airbrushing something out of a printed photo. (Non-Apollo) During the course of her conversation with the technician Tietze had learned that there was a procedure to censor photos before becoming publicly available.
In another account Donna Tietze tells that during the course of her employment in Building 8 she had dated a guy working security at the facility for NASA contractor Brown and Root. The man was former military and one night showed up to Tietze’s residence with a significant injury to the side of his face. When pressed to explain what had happened to him had related the following – He had been on a two-man detail taking printed photographs outside to an incinerator. Upon feeding photos into the incinerator, he had hesitated to look at one of them. At that point the second man guarding him had immediately hit him in the side of the head with his rifle butt.
Also, in 1995 an article appeared in the now defunct newsletter, Houston Sky, entitled The NASA Moon Photos / My Story of dealing with NASA in the 1970’s. It is a firsthand account given by a Houston based petroleum engineer named Vito Saccheri of his experience along with colleague, Lester Howes in 1979 detailing their persistence which ultimately led to their restricted viewing of uncensored Moon photographs. The material was located in a hidden subterranean photo library just outside the fence line at NASA / Houston. There was no one in the photo library except the librarian. Saccheri’s account speaks of being shown prints of orbital photos only.
In part Saccheri stated:
“The photos were huge, approximately 32 by 24 inches, with a dull grey, almost dull-black look. On the back of each, technical information was recorded, such as the probe’s height above the moon’s surface while it was taking the picture, the angle of approach, and the location of the sun in relation to the capsule…To this day, I can remember these views: A boulder that seemed to have been rolled uphill, leaving its tracks in the side of the hill; obvious machinery on the surface, showing bolted sections; three dilapidated “bridges” crossing a chasm that reminded me of the Grand Canyon; pipe fittings that looked like four-way Ts (or Xs) that could be seen in every photo, some with their ends turned up or down as they hung over the edge of a crater; three surprising pyramids that prompted me later to closely study the Egyptian Giza pyramid complex; apparent pipelines crisscrossing the surface, running to and from craters; a UFO rising from the surface and photographed directly above a crater; and perhaps the most memorable, the unmistakable figure of a rectangular structure placed squarely in the biggest crater pictured- the structure looked either very old or under construction, but the crater had to be miles wide, and the camera angle gave a perfect three-dimensional view. The clarity and resolution were unlike that of anything I had seen before or since…”
The NASA librarian had been asked if there was any way to buy some of the pictures. Saccheri and Howes were given forms to fill out and told it would take several weeks. When the pictures arrived Saccheri said “They were lousy as we expected, with almost no resolution.” No one who saw them was impressed, least of all me…”
Vito Saccheri was not the only person attesting to discrepancies in the Apollo photography. Amateur astronomer and author George Leonard whose 1977 book- Somebody Else Is On The Moon had gotten Saccheri and Howes interested in the undisclosed lunar discoveries had reported that some of the Lunar Orbiter imagery being seen at JPL (on a same frame basis) was of a higher resolution than was available to the public. And in those higher resolution frames details or ‘objects’ were seen that could not be seen in the public versions.
Ken Johnston was a former test pilot as well as trainer for Apollo astronauts to operate the Lunar Excursion Module. He later became the NASA Data and Photo Control Department manager who ran the Apollo 14 receiving lab. Johnston asserts NASA knows astronauts discovered ancient alien cities and the remains of amazingly advanced machinery on the Moon. He says the agency ordered a cover-up and forced him to participate in it. When Johnston refused to further participate, he was fired.
In 2005 I was in communication with a Mars researcher who knew Ken Johnston. Johnston had told him that he had seen the real photographs and, “They didn’t look anything like what we were being shown.”
My investigation in part included but was not limited to reviewing various digitized versions of all 22,450+ Apollo Hasselblad photos, all approximately 2000 (low resolution version) Metric Mapping Camera images and some Itek Panoramic Camera photos taken by Apollo astronauts from multiple NASA sources starting in 2003. From those were chosen about 1200 images that were of possible interest. Sitting before a pair of ViewSonic fine dot pitch, Professional Graphic CRT Monitors I did a magnified grid search of each one. Most images revealed nothing. There were however several that revealed blatant revelations that did not even require magnification. Or some, because of irregularities required further study. And there were other frame numbers which had multiple ‘versions’ from different sources with some versions revealing material that had been censored out just as author George Leonard had experienced. I also reviewed the publicly available Preliminary Science Reports for Apollo Missions 16-18, and a substantial amount of material available from the NASA History Office including going through The Lunar Surface Journals.
I then contacted the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) in Greenbelt Maryland to obtain copies of the frames I was interested in. The NSSDC is the official repository of the NASA space imagery for public purchase. I bought over $800 in duplicated film from NASA in lieu of any printed photographs. It had taken much longer than had been estimated to be delivered. The film was scanned into a high-resolution digital format and then examined. Some film was also looked at under direct magnification; all with mixed results. Many images appeared the same and at the same resolution as the publicly available digitized versions as obtained online from NASA sources. Some were sharper but lacked material seen in the lower resolution online scans. Some were of high resolution but when compared to NASA’s online versions had very obviously been tampered with; photographs taken at Van Serg crater during Mission 17 being a blatant example of tampering.
After looking at the film from The NSSDC I had called them up and had spoken with the guy who handled the film orders. I went over some of the discrepancies. It was obvious to me that he was aware what was going on and he had said, “I get what they give me.”
In addition to film requests I ordered a copy of the original Brookings Report dated November, 1960 from the National Space Science Data Center. What I was sent was a facsimile of the original report derived from a word processing scan made by a private third party which I told them was unacceptable. When pressed NASA staff then admitted that they had no true copy of the report at the facility. When pressed further 5 NSSDC staff finally had someone at the Washington D.C. NASA headquarters take an original copy and scan it into an Acrobat format for which I was charged around $250.
There were a number of methods that NASA film lab technicians and graphic artists used to censor the photographs which included –
- Processing the film slightly out of focus (this was especially effective when applied to orbital photos which relied on high magnification for resolving smaller objects.)
- Cropping out material near the edges of the frame which was unaltered or less altered.
- Airbrushing artificial objects to look like rocks or airbrushing objects out entirely.
- Intentionally processing the film over or under exposed to mask detail.
- Restaging’ the photo at an earthly mockup location.
The major process by which the NASA photographic fraud was conducted is as follows:
The photo lab would process the film and print a 20”x30” or larger photo. Technicians would then censor the image by airbrushing and in some cases knifing and pasting together images from different sources. This altered image would be placed on a table position and re-photographed by a fixed overhead camera. The film created by the “overhead” would then become the “Official Film” that the public would have access to. Frame #20694 which was shown in Part 1 is such an example. Additionally, some photos were staged in a studio setting especially for publicity purposes.
The photographic fraud was not limited to airbrushing and censoring printed photos. In preparation, prior to Apollo 11 making the first manned moon landing, NASA built the world’s largest soundstage at a cost of over 250 million dollars in around 1967. The soundstage was located eighty miles outside of Los Angeles (And Hollywood) in the Mojave Desert at Norton Air force Base. The soundstage would give NASA and its partner’s the capability to set up false lunar settings for still photography as well as the ability to switch or even pre-record lunar sequences while the Apollo astronauts were exploring classified areas and/or having encounters that the public would never be allowed to see or even suspect.
Maurice Chatelain, the Chief Electrical Engineer from North American Aviation who oversaw the design, construction, and running of the Apollo communications network for NASA later on had stated that the Apollo transmissions were broadcast to earth directly to Houston or due to earth’s rotation when Houston was out of reception relayed to Houston from other receiving posts such as in Australia. When necessary, voice transmissions between astronauts and Mission Control could be switched to a different frequency for discreet communications. Private Ham radio operators were able to intercept some of those exchanges which were often spoken in coded language. Chatelain had stated that there was a switch built into the system located at “Langley” that could intercept and first route all transmissions there before being then sent on to Houston. It should be noted that at that time NASA as well as the CIA had facilities in “Langley” Virginia. By first re-routing radio and especially television transmissions and putting them on time delay gave NASA/CIA operators the ability to censor the TV transmission through over gamma or darkening as well as lowering resolution. The “Switch” also gave Langley the capability to substitute segments of the live lunar transmission with a prerecorded transmission made at the NASA soundstage at Norton AFB, feed it to Houston with only a few key personnel being the wiser.
“At close distances the exact position of Apollo was measured by tracking radar from earth in the C band between 5,715 and 5,815 MHz. the radar signal was received and amplified by a transponder and retransmitted by Apollo back to Earth. The coded messages from Houston to Apollo were transmitted in ultrahigh frequencies (UHF) on the 450 MHz band, in one direction only. Voice and telemetry were carried on very high frequencies (VHF) on the 259-and 296-MHz bands.” – Maurice Chatelain
And if this all seems too far-fetched the reader should consider in part what the Brookings Report had warned of – Social Disintegration. That the most affected would be – “the scientists themselves whose most cherished theories are at risk.”
What Brookings didn’t entertain was that if artifacts found on the lunar surface composed of technologies far in advance of our own were discovered it would become a national security secrecy issue of the highest importance. It should go without saying that anything of this nature of practical size would be retrieved by the astronauts and returned to earth for study.
As background information on the photographs, one should be familiar with NASA’s labeling.
For instance, AS17-137-20900 stands for Apollo Mission 17- magazine 137- photo #20900. The last number is most important for it is unique. Both Black and white and color film were used. The custom Hasselblad magazines contained up to 300 frames for black and white and color film.
The Apollo 17 surface exploration known as E.V.A.s (Extra Vehicular Activity) was preplanned with the astronauts performing investigations that the public would see at nine specified ‘geology stations’ which they traveled to in the Lunar Rover.
As an example of manipulation, we can examine a labeled version of AS17-134-20429 (right) taken on December 11, 1972. The photo is typical of the censorship applied to the Apollo surface photography. The cropped area in the left foreground (arrowed) has 7 been isolated and enlarged revealing fairly blatant artificial debris with a small area below being typical of the way NASA airbrushed objects [We have previously seen how this was done by comparing the two different versions of frame 20694.] This airbrushed object is similar in appearance to the way the larger (left hand) humanoid skull was censored in 20694.
Directly above the lower enlargement (although less clear) another enlargement shows more artificial debris. The enlarged crop to the right shows artificial debris and an obscured object above it which has been ‘ghosted.’ What you are seeing looks nothing like the actual photograph taken by Astronaut Gene Cernan. And what is being called out here is likely merely a small amount that was missed when this frame was altered. However tedious the reader may find this process, attention to detail is necessary in putting together a comprehensive understanding of the discoveries.
As you will see in Part 3 other photographic alterations are not so subtle.
Separately and below is the lower left crop enlarged another approximately 2X
To further the reader’s understanding and acclimation to the dimension of the fraud perpetrated on the peoples of this planet an excerpted version of an Air Force veteran’s (With an Above Top-Secret security clearance) anonymous account given in 1997 is as follows:
Approximately 30 years prior, in 1966 the airman, trained in electronics repair on duty at an unnamed US Air Force base was told that “the Lunar Orbiter program had encountered a problem with an Electronic Photographic Contact Printer, identical to equipment that was utilized in the Dark Rooms of our own Unit. This was the first Lunar Orbiter program, the purpose of which was to bring back the first pictures of the surface of the Moon. *
[* …the purpose of which was to bring back the first pictures of the surface of the Moon…” This statement seems to be a typo as probes previous to the Lunar Orbiter program had returned many images. It should have read – the first high resolution pictures of the surface of the Moon…”]
“As the only Electronics Repairman on the Base with a Cryptologic Security clearance, a step above Top Secret, I was being loaned to the project to see if I could resolve the system problem…”
“… the massive arching metal-grey hanger one of the largest on the Base that housed the Lunar Orbiter project. Upon entering the hanger, I was asked to present my Top Secret Identity Badge in exchange for their internal higher level Identity Badge. This 10 was to be worn around the neck on a chain. Another guard escorted me through a series of security doors to an expansive open area within the hanger. Large black fabric curtains hung from a metal grid suspended from the ceiling. This in effect cordoned off various working areas within a larger space. Passing through one of the draped areas, I entered a large open space where people in small groups stood, talking quietly with a sense of seriousness and concern. I was immediately struck by the number of people who were present, what appeared to be civilians, scientists from other countries. With a bit of instant shock and judgement I thought to myself, why are they here? I had a very strange feeling, a feeling that something is off here, something is not quite right. I was introduced to a man dressed in civilian clothes and a lab coat, the head of the project, a Dr. Collie …”
” Left alone in the faint red light of the darkroom with the Airman and equipment, much of which I had never seen before, I began to question the technician, attempting to discern what the problem might be with the ailing contact printer.
After about thirty minutes of technical discussion and a complete rundown on all the steps in the process, the Airman turned to me and said candidly, “you know they’ve discovered a base on the back side of the Moon”. I said, “what do you mean” and again he said, “They have discovered a base on the Moon” and, surreptitiously, at the same time dropped a photograph in front of me. There it was, a mosaic print of the surface of the Moon, with some sort of geometric structures clearly visible. Scrutinizing the image naively, I could see spheres and towers. My first thought was,”Whose base is it?” Then I realized the full implication: it was not anyone of this earth…
Once the airman had repaired the printer- “Two days of labors paid off, a tiny diode on one of the circuit cards had shorted. Replacing the defective component, I was as surprised as anyone that I had found the problem. Dr. Collie was more than pleased and offered several of the first photographs of the Lunar surface to me in appreciation of my efforts. As he autographed some of the prints for me, I longed to ask more questions about the Moon Base but knew that, that was forbidden, and that I would have to wait for the evening News for the answers along with the rest of the world. Here it is more than thirty years later, and I am still waiting to hear the report on the Evening News of what was found on the back side of the Moon…”
Compare the Airman’s statement – “They have discovered a base on the Moon”… geometric structures clearly visible. Scrutinizing the image naively, I could see spheres and towers…” 11 to the statements of fired NASA employee, Ken Johnston who was a Data and Photo Control Department manager who ran the Apollo 14 receiving lab:
Johnston asserts NASA knows astronauts discovered ancient alien cities and the remains of amazingly advanced machinery on the Moon. He says the agency ordered a cover-up and forced him to participate in it. When Johnston refused to further participate, he was fired.
Johnston also stated that he had seen the real photographs and, “They didn’t look anything like what we were being shown.
The airman’s account raises some important questions.
1 – If NASA’s mandate of transparency were being followed and the public was being shown the actual images then why all the cordoned off areas within the hanger and the required security levels? Why would a printer technician repairing a machine processing lunar images be required to have a Crypto Clearance?
The answer is obvious.
2- From the Airman’s account- “…. I was immediately struck by the number of people who were present, what appeared to be civilians, scientists from other countries. With a bit of instant shock and judgement I thought to myself, why are they here? I had a very strange feeling, a feeling that something is off here, something is not quite right…”
As just two examples:
In 2004 while at a conference I spoke with a guy who was a researcher and also a bureaucrat in the Canadian government. He related that through his sources he had learned there are 200 scientists from all over the world that decide what you will and will not see or be told concerning space, extraterrestrials, etc.
The colorful Alex Jones is without a doubt, an expert on many aspects of the Ruling Oligarchy. Jones related on many occasions that the Rockefellers and the other ruling families and factions some time ago ceded their authority to a select group of scientists. This scientific group makes all major decisions with regard to eugenics, public access to scientific discoveries, and knowledge; above peoples, above governments, creating a Scientific Dictatorship.
And so, the Airman’s concern that something was “not quite right…something was off” was well justified.
Over the years there have been numerous complaints and examples of NASA smudging or blurring out specific areas in orbital photos with claims that NASA was censoring tall structures and spires projecting from the Lunar surface. (One such example shown right taken from a 2011 article typically and amateurishly presented without documentation. The shape of the censored areas is consistent with spires or tall structures.
The marked image left is an out the window taken from the Apollo 15 Command and Service Module with a 70mm Hasselblad camera in the area of the western shore of Mare Serenitatis. (Sea of Serenity) The lighting conditions are such producing a white, puffy appearance to much of the lunar terrain. In lunar astronomy this seeing condition is called a Corn on the Cob. Although the photo seems fairly clear the principle censorship applied to this image is having been intentionally processed slightly out of focus the result being magnification does not produce clarity of detail. The actual film properly processed would allow great magnification in stunning detail. However, with even this lower level of resolution some important features can be seen. The left center of the image Shows the North, South, West, and East Massifs defining the Taurus Littrow Valley and the Apollo 17 landing site. The blue arrow points to the location of Tracy’s Rock. The Green Arrow points to an Object of Special Interest located in a small crater to the Southeast of Le Monnier at the edge of the film. Projecting out of the crater is a feature/construct +- 4 miles in height. It is not a natural object.
The Apollo 17 mission carried four 70MM cameras, and 23 magazines of film. A total of 3584 images were taken, 1645 in black & white, and 1939 in color. And, the public was not shown one actual unaltered photo of the lunar surface at resolution.