Subj:	Nasa photos
Date:	6/12/01 12:10:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time
(Marshall Dudley) To:    bardsquill@aol.com

I just looked at the photos you linked to at
http://www.pbnnews.freeservers.com/nasa.html

Unfortunately the shadow analysis is wrong, and because of that, the
evidence is easy to dismiss.  A shadow can appear to be in a wide range
of directions, depending on the surface it is cast on.  The lines drawn
on the photos to indicate the source of light are all wrong.  There are
ONLY two points on a shadow which is cast on uneven ground that can be
matched to the object casting the shadow. That is the point where the
shadow touches the object and the for end of the shadow, which
corresponds with the (normally) highest point of the object.  Obviously
there is not way to determine a vector from the point where the shadow
touches the object, since both points are the same point.

However there is a simple method to determine the direction of the light
source from a photograph and when you do it, you will find that all the
lines drawn to indicate the direction of the source on these photos are
off. Go to the point at the very end of the shadow.  Then take a
straight edge and starting vertically, pivot it down, using the end of
the shadow as a pivot point, until it just touches the object.  Use the
straight edge to draw a line, the light source MUST be on that line.  If
you do that in these photos you will find that the actual light source
is NOT on the lines drawn on the pictures due to the ground being
uneven.  The lines drawn correspond to the top of the shadow connected
to the bottom of the object, which have no bearing on each other at all!

However, it solves one oddity on the first photo.  The first photo
indicates a light source at a point which is in the picture, and
obviously there is no light source there. Thus the analysis is obviously
wrong.  But if you use the method I give above, you will find that the
light source is just out of the frame of the picture, which supports the
notion that the source is not the sun, and also matches the fact that
the source is NOT in the picture.

Marshall