Astronaut dreams

Forty years ago I huddled with my family around our giant 27” television and watched grainy black and white images of (a) man’s first step on the moon and a giant leap for mankind. I was amazed at the technological feat of sending men a quarter million miles to land on a barren satellite. It was to prove a point, win a race and “to go where no man has gone before.”

The feat is even more amazing in the light of today’s technology. The Apollo spacecraft flew their dangerous missions with only 36 KB of memory on their primitive computers. Our kids’ toys have a whole lot more than that today. For support, the astronauts carried aluminum Pickett-brand slide rules, analog handheld computers, which most kids would not recognize today. I had to learn using one (a K&E brand, not a Pickett) when I went to college, as electronic calculators were expensive in the early ’70s.

I dreamed of becoming an astronaut ever since the Gemini series of space flights. I watched 2001, a Space Odyssey at the Nation Cinerama theater in Cubao in 1968. The same year Star Trek hit the small screen on Uncle Bob’s Channel 7. I had a scrap book (now lost) with clippings of the whole space race in the ’60s. My dad even gifted me a scale model of the Saturn V rocket complete with the command and lunar modules inside.

I yearned for NASA and Trekkie (okay …Trekker) stuff. Teleporters and phasers were not available on the market, so first there were the space pens. NASA spent millions on developing these writing instruments. It had a pressurized ink cartridge to allow you to write in zero gravity. The Russians solved that problem easily — they used pencils. I grew out of that yearning when I found out the pens cost a few thousand pesos each then, but today I think you can get one at the Rustan’s men’s department.

What I longed for really were two gadgets those intrepid space men had — a Hasselblad camera and an Omega Speedmaster Professional watch.

The Hasselblad is the world’s best medium format camera. The Swedish product was chosen from the start of the space program for use on the Mercury series of space flights. They were built like tanks and never lost accuracy.

The Mercury and Gemini astronauts used the classic Hasselblad 500C model. On the Apollo flights, NASA issued modified Hasselblad EL Data Cameras with the fantastic Zeiss 5.6/60 mm Biogon lens.

The Apollo 11 astronauts had one each, with two left behind on the moon. The modifications on the camera included a film back that could take 150-150 shot rolls. Yes, they still used film then and all the way to the start of the Space Shuttle era.

I have never owned a Hassselblad but did get to use one when I worked for National Artist for (Landscape) Architecture IP Santos in the late 1970s. He allowed me to use his Hasselblad Super Wide C, almost as special as the Apollo models, the SWC, boasted an extremely wide lens (14mm in 35mm equivalent), which had almost no distortion! I used it for a few months taking landscape shots.

I eventually started using a Voitlander rangefinder using 35mm film, the more practical format, and ended up (until today) with the delightful Canon EOS cameras and lenses. I still have most of my film cameras including medium format Mamiyas before going fully digital with Canon (a full-frame EOS 5D with the wonderful wide angle zoom 16-35mm L lens always on it) — picture-perfect shots all the time.

A picture of perfect pulchritude, too, was Gloria Diaz, who won the Miss Universe title. The news was transmitted to them by CapCom in Houston in a lull just before insertion into moon orbit.

The watch was another wanna-have. NASA wanted a watch that would stand the rigors of outer space as well as work in zero gravity. They had their men secretly buy a bunch of watches from regular stores and subjected them to a rigorous battery of tests. The Omega came out with flying colors. The first American astronaut to walk in space Edward White wore an Omega Speedmaster during his Gemini 4 extra vehicular activity (spacewalk).

NASA gave each of the Apollo astronauts a standard issue Omega Speedmaster Professional manual-wind wristwatch (automatics would not work in zero-gravity). The Omegas were purchased straight from regular downtown Houston stores and needed no customizing, a testimony to the watch’s quality.

The astronauts used the watches both in and out of the spacecraft. Inside they wore the watches with the regular strap. Outside they were attached using a Velcro strap.

A bit of trivia — Buzz Aldrin’s Speedmaster was the first watch on the moon. According to Buzz, Neil Armstrong left his Omega Speedmaster inside the Lunar Module as a replacement for the in-cabin (non-Omega) timer, which had conked out.

No, I never owned an Omega Speedmaster. I wear P500 China watches so I don’t feel bad when I misplace and lose them. The Hasselbald is still a dream (a new one just came out — the digital H3DII-50, a 50-megapixel monster! I’m more than satisfied though with my Canon 5D, but I am saving up for a 5D Mark II. (hint ..hint …it’s my birthday today.)

Going to the moon is still a dream for me. As humans, I agree with Buzz Aldrin, that we should aim for Mars and beyond. I don’t seriously think I’ll be able to reach the moon but I just might be able to book an orbital flight on Richard Branson’s SpaceShipThree sometime in the future!

* * *

The Pasig Art Club, of which I am an honorary member, is holding its second art fair “An Affair to Remember” at Arte Pasigueño, home gallery of the PAC, at 30 M.H. Del Pilar St., Pasig City (the Dimanlig family ancestral house).

* * *

Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.