January 2013 * Volume 331

Harry quotes Shakespeare...2Flowers on Mars?.................2 January sky .........................3Mick ‘n Don ..........................4

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THE WORLD IS ENDINGON May 19 at 9.27pm

Sorting through last year’s cop-ies of the Night Sky newsletter I notice that I failed to keep file copies of the July, August and October issues. No idea why!Does anybody or any astron-omy club have a loose copy of the above months that they could spare?

It might be a sign of the times, or to quote that line from the movie :”Signs and wonders, signs and wonders.” but the doomsayers are out there- in force- so it seems. We’ve al-ready been asked about ‘The Coming’ or ‘The Going’ or ‘The End of Days’ that are vari-ously supposed to occur on the 19th of May, the 21st June or possibly on September 8th. None of these dates is an abso-lute, the whole universe could come unstuck months or even years later. Keep up the car re-payments folks!

Sydney Observatory is open in January and has a great range of activities for school-kids of all ages. Contact them (02)9921 3485 or www.sydneyobservato-ry.com.au/whatson/school-holi-days/ to find out what deviltry the kids can get up to over the next month- day and night.

Similarly, the Science Centre in Fairy Meadow near Wollongong (sciencecentre.uow.edu.au/) has an extensive array of science and astronomy-based activities for the ankle-biters and teens. Opening times, information for groups, details of exhibits, news and events. are all listed on the website. Or you can use the ‘dog ‘n bone’ to contact them on (02) 4286 5000

Some schools appear to be awash with funds that allows them to buy lots of shiny new science equipment. It would be nice if some was used to buy astronomical equipment. There seems to be a groundswell of interest in astronomy as a sub-ject- partly I suspect because it is actually interesting and also because so much of the equipment can be computer-controlled.

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Due to the overwhelming success of the end of the world on the 21st of Decem-ber last year, organizers have decided to stage the event again on Pentecost Sunday. Expect beams of light, sparkling flames and other manifestations.

YET ANOTHER GIANT COMET IS ON THE WAY

The next three trumpets will result in the total collapse of the United States, and once the Fifth Trumpet sounds the world will be thrust into World War III.The Seven Trumpets of the Seventh Seal, as well as the Seven Thunders of the Book of Revelation, which the apostle John saw but was restricted from recording; are revealed in (my) book.Many of the prophecies of the Seven Thunders are being fulfilled and will continue to increase in strength and frequency throughout this final three and one-half years of man’s self-rule on earth.The prophecies revealed in this book explain the demise of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and much of west-ern Europe, which will be followed by man’s final world war. This last war will be the result of clashing religions and the governments they sway. Bil-lions will die! The destruction of this time will far exceed the very worst times of all human history.As these events unfold, the world will increasingly become aware of the authenticity of the words in this book and realize that Ronald Weinland has been sent by God as His end-time prophet.” Ever-modest Ronald Weinland was indicted November 10, 2011 by a fed-eral grand jury on five charges of tax evasion. It was alleged that he had understated his income on federal tax returns, redirected church funds for personal use and concealed the existence of a Swiss bank account.Weinland admitted that church funds were placed in a bank account in Switzerland but denied that there was any tax evasion, and stated that all funds had since been repatriated to the United States and used for church advertising purposes.Weinland’s trial began on June 4, 2012. Two weeks later a jury found Weinland guilty on all counts of tax evasion. In November last year Wein-land was sentenced to more than three years in prison, and a $245,000 tax restitution. His prison term will begin on February 1, four months be-fore the End, giving him time to think up excuses when it doesn’t happen.

Ronald Weinland has predicted the End of Days, the Second Coming, the Be-ginning of the End, the Breaking of the Seventh Seal and a number of Really Important Events over the last ten years or so. We would hasten to point out that he failed to predict his own Incarceration for tax evasion in the USA.

........ give or take an hour or two.

TERROR ! SHOCK ! HORROR ! NEWS HEADLINES !

If it does we might very well get a spectacular light and colour dem-onstration in the sky.How good will it be? It’s hard to predict, but according to astrono-mer Raminder Singh Samra of the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, suggests that if it lives up to expectations, this comet may be one of the brightest in history. He says that, at this early stage, the comet though faint, is already sur-prisingly bright.Comet ISON will make its closest approach to the Sun in late Novem-ber this year. Its approach will take it to within a million kilometres of the Sun. When closest to the Earth it will be about sixty million kilo-metres from us. An intriguing point is that some of the orbital elements of comet ISON are similar to that of the Great Comet of 1680. This suggests that they may be similar fragments from the same parent body.

Comets are however, notoriously fickle. The show they put on de-pends on their composition, the number of times they have been around the Sun and how much of their material has been vapourised or discarded as dust and rubble. They do precisely what they want.

If you missed the upheavals of the 21st of December you may be interested to hear what Mr. Weinland has to say about what is happening-“The year 2008 marked the last of God’s warnings to mankind. The final countdown to the end of man’s self-rule began on May 27, 2012, and will end on Pentecost of 2013. On December 14, 2008, the First Trumpet of the Seventh Seal of the Book of Revelation sounded, which announced the beginning collapse of the econo-my of the United States and great destruction that will follow. ”

Comet 2012 S1 ISON was discov-ered on September 21st last year by Russian astronomers Artyom Novi-chonok and Vitali Nevski of the International Scientific Optical Net-work near Kislovodsk, Russia. The discovery was confirmed by other observatories and accepted by the International Astronomical Union. Scientists believe that, given this comet’s orbit, its origin may be the Oort Cloud, a (theoretical) spherical cloud of cometary matter surround-ing the solar system, located almost a light-year out from the sun.

Named 2012 S1, the comet is follow-ing a similar, nearly parabolic.orbit to that of the Great Comet of 1680, which is still considered to be one of the greatest comets in history. This new comet could become so bright that scientists believe it may rival the full moon. Be happy, don’t worry. Like every other known comet, this one is not going to wipe us off the face of the Earth, bring the Great Plague or presage the end of the universe as we know it. According to astronomers at an ob-servatory in Italy, ISON “will move to within two million kilometres of the Sun at the end of November 2013 producing a giant tail. Historically comets were believed to predict disasters, the death of

kings, upheavals, earthquakes and the demise of great civilizations.

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TYCHO or NOT TYCHO

Scaling the Heights: Tycho. We’ve all viewed Tycho, the youngest ‘big’ crater on the Moon, generally agreed to be only 110 million years old. When the Moon is full Tycho shows brilliant rays, some stretching across the whole visible disc: an as-tonishing sight even in binoculars. Tycho is said to be ‘pristine’, that is, little changed since it was formed. Tycho may be one of sev-eral large impactors that hit Earth 65 million years ago, ending the ‘reign’ of dinosaurs – but only if the dating of Tycho is somewhat in error. Looking closely at the inner walls of Tycho at high magnification, we see a range of collapse features. How were they created? Impact cratering: When one object moving at tens of kilo-metres per second hits another, the energy released is proportional to the square of their combined veloci-ties –where energy, E = 1⁄2mv2. The ‘squaring’ of impact velocity makes for an enormous energy yield: akin to a nuclear explosion. The Tycho impactor, ~8km in diam-eter and moving from the SW, exca-vated a crater ~90km diameter and ~5km deep, presumably in seconds. Material was either vaporized, ex-cavated or melted, forming a ‘pond’ of melt that may have been liquid for quite some time. Cratering ex-periments on Earth using explosives (TNT and ‘nukes’) as well as high velocity ‘guns’ firing tiny pellets into model ‘soils’ have resulted in craters identical to those of the Moon. After the impact: Soon af-ter the initial cratering the surround-ing material ‘realizes’ it is no longer supported on one side - and collapses into the new hole.

Much of this is fairly clear in a large pristine crater like Tycho, but is more confusing in ‘weath-ered’ older craters, where forma-tions are harder to interpret. The LROC ACT-RE-ACT quickmap application plots lunar terrain profiles and the Fig (Quickmap) shows the E-W section through Tycho – it’s a wonderful tool for amateurs! The scarps and terraces of the western slopes are clearly shown – but note that the software stretches vertical relief by 15 times (!) – the true profile (Fig, plotted below) is more subdued.

As well the impact shock has frac-tured much surrounding mate-rial into smaller units – promoting widespread collapse.Collapse may take various forms: here are a couple we often see in our ‘scopes (Fig). Collapse Formations. Loose or fractured material col-lapses in a landslide, flowing some distance across the crater’s floor, ending up as a low slope, often with rifts, low ridges and hummocks : a chaotic slope. In this way the origi-nal crater rim is demolished. By contrast, more consolidated material collapses in a different way: by rotation (Fig). In this case a spherical ‘slip face’ develops and ‘blocks’ of material slide down into the crater, sometimes causing ‘scal-lop’-shaped divots in the original crater rim. Rotational collapse re-sults in steeper slopes, with ‘terrac-es’ and ‘scarps’ – formations that are easily seen in small ‘scopes. This collapse mode also results in scree slopes below the scarps (Fig: crater wall model). These features are labelled in the sketch of Tycho’s SW wall (Fig, boxed). US-USI is the upper, or highest, scarp. LS-LSI is the lower scarp. Above the lower scarp is a more or less continuous terrace Y-YI. At the base of the wall are scree slopes X-XI that have flowed some way across the crater floor, with ‘toes’ where the scree finally came to rest. Very small craters (e.g. Linné or Birt) preserve the original rim, but in most craters the upper scarp is not the original rim. Often, that has slipped down into the crater – and in Tycho may be scarp LS-LSI; sometimes it’s fractured into loose material. Con-fused?

Tycho is a special site for amateurs, preserving many exotic landforms lost in most craters. And being fairly close to the lunar limb, those formations can be viewed almost ‘side-on’ - a much more informa-tive view than the aerial views we have for most craters. Good ‘see-ing’ and high magnification are needed (think 50 times per inch of aperture).In a future piece we may go ‘hunt-ing’ in Tycho’s walls for much rarer ‘prey’ – ponds of impact melt: sel-dom seen anywhere on the Moon. But on Tycho? Who can tell! Harry Roberts

January 2013 * Volume 331 * Page 2

Researchers at the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteorit-ics have identified a new class of Martian meteorite that fell to Earth from the red planet. It is made of cemented fragments of basalt rock with feldspar and pyroxene, almost certainly from volcanic activity. The 320 gram meteorite known as NWA 7034, was found in the Sa-hara Desert two years ago. After more than a year of intensive study, the scientists have determined that the meteorite formed 2.1 billion years ago and gives us a glimpse of ancient surface and environmental conditions on Mars. It is a nearly perfect match for surface rocks and outcrops that NASA’s current Mars missions have studied by remote sensing.

NEW MARS METEORITE

Researchers performed microbeam and x-ray analysis of minerals, wa-ter analysis, stable isotope analysis, and age-dating. Oxygen isotopes of water and carbon dioxide were found. They also found organic car-bon in this meteorite which is made of brecciated volcanic rock. It is consistent with the composition of surface rocks seen on Mars.Analysis of oxygen isotopes shows that NWA 7034 is not like any other meteorites The chemistry is con-sistent with surface rocks that have interacted with an atmosphere or surface water 2.1 billion years ago.This meteorite has some similari-ties to, but is very different from 110 known Martian meteorites known as SNC’s. (Shergotty, Nakhla and Chassigny). It will undoubtedly pro-vide more clues about Mars’ warm, wet past and its present cold, dry state as researchers at UNM and others continue to examine it.

On December 19 Curiosity spent the day taking dozens of photos that when stitched together pro-duced a mosaic of Yellowknife Bay. In one of the images was a crystal-line structure in the face of a rock. The object looks like the petals of a flower.On January 3rd, it drove to a fea-ture dubbed Snake River by ground controllers on Earth. The feature is a band of stone that separates a bed of sand from a layer of sedimentary rock. According to John Grotzinger, mission project scientist, “ It has a crosscutting relationship to the sur-rounding rock and appears to have formed after the deposition of the layers that it transects.- it’s neces-sary to figure out how that hap-pened.”Another camera took a close-up image of a layer of rock that was made up of a fine-grained matrix with many inclusions of small peb-bles. One inclusion, however, stood out, both literally and visually. It was a translucent structure that looked like the fossilized petals of a flower- or a piece of debris from a spacecraft. Guy Webster, NASA spokesman said “That appears to part of the rock, not debris from the spacecraft,”

FLOWERS ON MARS ?Strange discoveries as Curiosity begins to wander.

As the older rovers on Mars sur-face have shown we can assume that Curios-ity will be in operation for some years to come.... during which more strange and perplex-ing discover-ies are very likely.

As Mars Rover Curiosity explores Yellowknife Bay, the mission sci-entists will select a rock for ex-perimentation. A hammer drill will extract samples from deep within the selected rock for analysis, and the results will provide another baseline of ancient rock unaffected by atmosphere or light, since the samples come from below the depth at which such things can affect the stone’s chemistry. Six weeks are planned for this exploration and sampling expedition, after which Curiosity will begin her nine month trek up Mt. Sharp.

The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 84 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: 02 9518 7255 The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 519 Burke Road, Camberwell Vic 3124. Tel: 03 9822 0033

Saturn is in the eastern sky after midnight and

best viewing in the eastern sky an hour or two later in Libra. Rings are at a nice angle.

Neptune: Is still in Aquarius. Low in the western sky just after dark. A couple of degrees to the left of the

Moon on the 15th. Have a squiz.

Uranus: is still in Pisces, low in the northwest. Not easy to see clearly

in most telescopes.

5th Last Quarter

10th Moon at Perigee

12th New Moon

19th First Quarter.

22nd Moon at Apogee.

27th Full Moon

Pluto: Has made a vow to lay off the pollies heels this year because

he copped a good kicking when he bit a certain Member’s member, so to speak. On the other hand they do need a bit of herding to keep them under control in the long paddock.

January 2013 * Volume 331 * Page 3

You can shop on-line at www.bintel.com.au for your astronomical needs.

Mercury: has moved behind the Sun and is at Superior Conjunction just after mid-month.

Mars is very low the western sky in Capricorn,

then Aquarius. Not easy to see as the sky isn’t very dark after sunset.

Venus: is the brightest thing in the pre-dawn eastern sky. Often called

the ‘Morning Star’ though it’s actually a planet- and looks like

moon through scopes.

Jupiter is rising in the East before sunset and is great viewing all month

long. It’s near the bull’s horns in Taurus high in the northern sky.

Early evening sky January 2013- Earth at Perehelion- 2nd January

The moon is moving slowly away from the Earth. Each year, the moon absorbs some of Earth’s rotational energy, and propels itself a few cen-timetres further in its orbit.When it formed over four billion years ago, the moon was about twenty-five thousand kilometres from Earth. It’s now almost half-a-million kilometers away.Meanwhile, Earth’s rotation is slow-ing down, but that’s another story.

The human race lives in hope. That’s why we buy lottery tickets and play one or more of the vari-ous Lotto games. Astronomers look foreward each year to the dream that a new comet may appear to grace our skies. This year we have a number of recently discovered com-ets reaching perehelion (McNaught, Linear, Panstarrs, Lemmon) though probably none will be particularly bright. Let’s hope that Comet ISON puts on a big show late in the year... but don’t buy lotto tickets in hope!

The Pleiades cluster is an example of a reflection nebula associated with a cluster of young stars. We can see about seven of the stars (hence the common name the ‘Seven Sisters’) The cluster is actually a group of hundreds of stars about 400 light years away in Taurus. Even Alcyo-ne, the brightest of the Pleiades stars would be inconspicuous if it wasn’t a member of the cluster The faint-est named star Asterope is difficult to see with the naked eye. but is brighter than our Sun.

The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 84 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: 02 9518 7255 The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 519 Burke Road, Camberwell Vic 3124. Tel: 03 9822 0033

Amateur astronomers around the world, and particularly in the Northern Hemisphere were treated to an excel-lent display of meteors in December. The Geminid meteor shower produced a steady stream of meteors as captured in this time exposure from the north-western USA.

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His Eminence Professor Dr Nervo Shatterini requests that those who wish to avoid the Quickening and the Zombie Apocalypes should wear aluminium foil head shields and answer the following ques-tions:

January

January 2013 * Volume 331 * Page 4

Macarthur Astronomical Society Inc: NSW ☎ 0402 479 776 Trevor Rhoades www.macastro.org.auSutherland Astronomical Society Inc: NSW☎ (02)9832 4082 Brett McMillan.www.sasi.net.auNorthern Sydney Astronomical Society Inc: ☎ Bob Fuller 0423 971374 www.nsas.org.auSydney City Skywatchers (BAA) (NSW) ☎ 9398 9705 www.sydneycityskywatchers.asn.auThe Astronomical Society of NSW. ☎ 0428 965 249 John O’Brien www.asnsw.comThe Western Sydney Amateur Astro Group Inc ☎ Gerry Aarts 0416 292 020 www.wsaag.orgSydney Northwest Astronomical Society☎ (02) 9634 1736 Ken Petersen The Wollongong Astronomy Club. NSW☎ (02) 4261 9369 Paul BrownThe Illawarra Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 4276 3199 Peter McKinnonwww.illawarraastronomicalsociety.hostoi.com Shoalhaven Astronomers: South Coast NSW ☎ (02) 4423 2255 Jack Apfelbaumwww.shoalhavenastronomers.asn.auThe Astronomical Society of the Hunter: NSW (02) 4937 4664 Col Maybury colmay@kooee.com.auNewcastle Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 4950 0725 Allan Meehan www.nas.org.auCoffs Harbour Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 6653 2742 Win Howard Coonabarabran Astronomical Society, NSW☎ secretary@coona-astro.org.au Central West Astronomical Society, NSWJohn Sarkissian: john.sarkissian@csiro.au. Port Macquarie Astronomical Association NSW☎ 0403 683 394 Rodney Neasbey www.pmobs.org.auGrafton Astronomical Society, NSW☎ (02) 6643 1349 Mick Austin, President Pro tem.Bombala Astronomy Group, NSWUniversity of New England Astronomical Society ☎ (0427 892 011 Chris Wyatt Clarence Valley Astronomical Society☎ (02) 6643 3288 Steve FletcherBallaarat Astronomical Society: Vic ☎ (03) 5332 7526 bas@cbl.com.au http://observatory.ballarat.netBendigo District Astronomical SocietyPO Box 164 Bendigo Vic 3552 . Kate McMillanAstronomical Society of Victoria Inc ☎ (03) 9888 7130. Linda Mockridge www.asv.org.au Latrobe Valley Astronomical Society Vic☎ (03) 5122 3014 home.vicnet.net.au/~lvas Astronomical Society of Geelong, Vic☎ 0407 345 070 Frank Baker for details.http://vicnet.net.au~asogMornington Peninsula Astronomical Society, ☎ 0419 253 252 Peter Skilton for details.http://www.mpas.asn.au Astronomy Benalla 03 5762 1523 Rupe Cheethamwww.astronomybenalla.org.auAstronomical Society of Albury-Wodonga☎Petra De Ruyter 0431 535 417 www.asaw.org.au Mount Burnett Observatory. mtburnettobservatory.org ☎ 0419 516 560 Ray Schmidt. Snake Valley Astronomical Association (Vic)☎ 0418 425 207 Me Ken James.Canberra Astronomical Society: ACT☎ (02)6248 0552 J. Howard www.mso.anu.edu.au/casBrisbane Astronomical Society: Qld ☎ (07) 3321 8511 Darryl Mitchellwww.bas.asn.auSouthern Astronomical Society:Qld☎ 0421 866 376 Joe Zerafa.www.sas.org.auAstronomical Association of Queensland, Qld☎ Peter Hall (07) 3378 1173 www.aaq.org.auSouth East Queensland Astronomical Society, ☎ (07) 3239 0032. www.seqas.orgIngham Amateur Astronomers Club☎ (07) 4776 5773 Tracey Castles.Bundaberg Astronomical Soc. Qld☎ (07) 4159 7232 www.interwox.com.auRedlands Astronomical Society Qld☎ (07) 3207 2818 Chris Tacke www.ras.org.auAstronomical Society of South Australia, SA ☎ (08) 8338 1231 Tony Beresford. www.assa.org.auAstronomical Society of Tasmania, Tas ☎ 0419 305 722 Bob Coghlan. www.ast.n3.netAstronomical Society of Alice Springs N.T. ☎ (08) 8953 1903 Richard Williamsonrichard@comspec.com.auDarwin Astronomy Group NT☎ (0420 238 663 Matt Bartonwww.darwinastronomy.comGove Amateur Astronomers, NT ☎ 0417 601 490 Ian Maclean for information.Astronomical Society of Western Australia, WAhttp://www.aswa.info ☎ (08) 9364 9603Astronomical Society of The South-West, W.A. ☎ (08) 9721 1586 Phil Smith.

Your club not listed? Wrong contact? Tell Mike Smith!mike@bintel.com.au

Night Sky is published monthly by The Binocular and Telescope Shop Pty Ltd

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Any errors, mis-spellings, dropped apostrophes and lost words are the fault of Mike Smith. Whinges or comments should be send to-

mike@bintel.com.auPrinted in a small back lane at Artarmon

by Master Printing.This newsletter is available at The Binocular

and Telescope Shop and at many astronomical society meetings and astronomy

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Night Sky is available free by email or in print by sending $20 to Bintel.Ask mike@bintel.com.au to be on the mailing

list for the NIGHT SKY.

Hey Don,gettin’

ready for this year’s end of the

world ?

Reckon so.

Which particular ‘End of the World” are you goin’ with?

I like the look of the one that happens July 27th.

It comes with gentle Earth-warming,

earthquakes , brimstone and the

End of Daze free rock

concert.

I ’ve been t h i n k i n ’ about that.

NOW IN STOCK !Astronomy 2013

post free !

Australia’s best-selling astronomy year-book!Everything you need to know about the night sky for next year.* The Sun* The planets.* Eclipses.* The Moon.* Comets.* Meteor Showers.* Rise and Set times.* Constellations.* Deep DSky Objects.* Hundreds of illustrations.* Useful articles about amazing facts.Drop into our store in Sydney or in Melbourne...or phone us.... or send a letter orbuy at www.bintel.com.au...

BUY IN STORE OR ONLINE

I p r e f e r t h e Armageddon show

w i t h B r u c e W i l l i s . C o r n y b u t a bit more dramatic.

The Geminid Meteor Shower 2012

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(1) What would we now call the constellation Cesaries?(2) How did Flamsteed assign star numbers?(3) Whose work “Treasury of Op-tics” was first published (in Latin) in 1572?(4) What do we call the optical ef-fect that makes bright objects look bigger if viewed against a dark background?(5) What is ‘nutation’?(6) Apis Indica was a constella-tion. What’s it now called? (7) With what does Astrophysics deal?(8) Around which planet does Por-tia orbit?(9) What is Rayleigh scattering? (10) What occurred near β Lupus towards the end of the Viking era?(11) Where is the Manicougan Im-pact Structure?(12) Does the Moon appear to move along the ecliptic?(13) Who wrote that he himself might be the coming Maitreya?(14) Who invented the term ‘neu-tron star’?(15) What is the Ursa Major Mov-ing Cluster?(16) Betty Hill was abducted in 1961 by aliens from which constel-lation?(17) From what does a Helium Flash Object descend?(18) What is a TLP?(19) Who was the major sponsor of the Hi-Fi Club on Radio 6PM in Perth in 1959?(20) Which famous local star lies in Gould’s Belt?Answers may be found below.

(1) Coma Berenices.(2) By right ascension.(3) Abu Ali al Hassan (4) Irradiance.(5) It’s a small wobble on top of a large wobble(6) Apus- the bird of paradise. (7) With the physics of stars, stellar systems and interstellar material.(8) It’s the 7th moon of Uranus.(9) It’s the scattering of light by very small particles of dust or gas.(10) Supernova of 1006(11) It’s in Quebec, Canada.(12) It moves in an orbit thats in-clined 5 degrees to the ecliptic.(13) L. Ron Hubbard.(15) The closest cluster of stars to our Sun. (16) Reticulum. (17) From a white dwarf star.(18) Transient Lunar Phenomenon. (19) Coca Cola Bottlers.(20) Our Sun.

Ever since Neil Armstrong uttered the famous words, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” there has been argument about what he said and when he thought it up.His brother Dean has said that Neil showed him a draft of the words he was planning to say months in advance. Neil Armstrong himself never said that he made up the words spontaneously just before the land-ing- as has been recently claimed. Neil Armstrong was a thoughtful man who was generally inclined to prepare himself well in advance for what might hap-pen. That’s why he was a test pilot. It’s probable that he mulled over the wording just before stepping down onto the Moon, but that the general gist of what he would say was already fixed in his mind.Armstrong himself was always certain that he used the words, “That’s one small step for a man,” and that the microphone simply did not pick up the word ‘a’ . The recording systems used in those days tended to turn off if there was a pause in what was being said, the way some dictaphones do. A recent examination of the original tapes of the his-toric moment tend to bear out his assertion. Given his proclivity for being prepared for whatever might happen he probably had most of the short speech prepared well in advance but ‘ad-libbed’ it on the day.

THAT’S ONE SMALL STEP...