That whole moon landing hoax thing? Changed my mind after a telescope meetup.

I used to think the moon landings were obviously faked, but then I saw a guy at a local astronomy club in Phoenix bounce a laser off the reflector they left up there. Has anyone else had a hardcore skeptic moment get flipped by something like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

theas283d ago

Did you actually get to see the laser spot or just hear about it? I used to be pretty skeptical of the whole thing too but seeing the actual science behind it really changed my mind.

adam_baker4d ago

Whoa, that's wild. I had a similar thing happen but with the GPS satellites. I was at a star party out in the desert and this old guy had a radio rig tuned to catch the signals from them. He let me listen to the faint beeps and explained how they actually prove Einstein's theory of relativity because the clocks on board run at a different speed than the ones down here. It completely wrecked my idea that all space stuff was just government theater. That moment made me realize how much trust I put in random conspiracy videos over actual physics. Did the laser test feel as trippy to watch as I'm imagining?

nelson.wren3d ago

That whole thing about "trust I put in random conspiracy videos over actual physics" really hit home. I notice this pattern all the time now where people believe super polished youtube videos over stuff they can actually go see with their own eyes. Like how my neighbor swears by some guy's podcast about chemtrails but won't look up at a real plane dumping actual water vapor that makes a rainbow trail. It's like we forgot that taking a telescope to a parking lot or listening to a weird satellite beep is way easier than believing whatever dramatic story pops up next in our feed.