On 50th anniversary of moon landing, Westminster Astronomical Society joining ‘Space Day’ in Gettysburg

Saturday evening will mark 50 years since America won the space race and human beings first walked on the moon.

To mark the occasion, the Westminster Astronomical Society will be holding a special event at the Eisenhower National Historical Site in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the National Park Service.

“They said, ‘Hey, Dwight D. Eisenhower was instrumental in signing the bill to authorize NASA. Why don’t we have the astronomy people come out on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing to try to get more exposure?’” said Wayne “Skip” Bird, outreach coordinator for the astronomical society. “We said, ‘sure!’ ”

The Eisenhower National Historical Site’s “Space Day” will begin at 9:30 a.m., through the astronomical society’s portion of the even will run from noon until 5 p.m., according to Bird.

“We’re going to have telescopes looking at the sun, we’re going to have scale model solar system walks, where you can walk around and see how far is far and how small we really are,” he said. “We may make constellation maps, pocket solar systems and activities for the kids.”

The event will be held rain or shine, according to Bird, with more indoor activities if it’s cloudy and safe solar observation if the sky is clear. The moon itself will be unable to make an appearance.

“The moon doesn’t come up until after 11 p.m., and it sets about 8 a.m.,” Bird said, “so at this time of year, the moon will not be visible for anything we could do.”

The Space Day event itself is free and no registration is necessary, but shuttle bus tickets to the site for those ages 13 and older are $9.

It will be an interesting day for Bird to reflect on his own memories of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. He was just two days from turning 16, and the space race had captivated him.

“I had been watching everything. I watched all the Apollo launches and was an avid space nut," he said. “I was too big though to be an astronaut. At that time you couldn’t be over 5’9” or something like that, and at 16 I was almost 6-foot. So I knew I wasn’t going to be an astronaut."

Bird nevertheless was able to persuade his parents and two sisters to watch the broadcast of the landing, with coverage led by Walter Cronkite of CBS, as Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on another world.

“We all sat around the TV and watched parts of it, and it was really poor video,” he said. “The new digitized versions, the cleaned-up versions are so much better. All I could remember was I could barely understand what they were saying.”

But scratchy audio and fuzzy analog broadcast images couldn’t dampen the spirit of that evening for Bird.

“It was real exciting — I jumped up and down and was clapping,” he said. “I remember getting excited about that and going outside and looking at the moon thinking, ‘There’s people up there. Maybe I’ll be up there. I may not be an astronaut, but maybe someday I’ll be up there.’ ”

Bird isn’t the only member of Westminster Astronomical Society with memories of that celestial day in the summer of 1969; the society’s current secretary, Ian Slepian, recalls it well, though from a slightly different perspective.

“I was 16 and I was studying French, in France, for the summer with a high school group,” Slepian said. “Where I was the day of the moon landing was a town called Bellegarde, France. It’s on the border with Switzerland.”

Slepian can recall sitting in a restaurant of some sort, with TV screens carrying the American broadcast coverage of the landing, but not without adding a French twist.

“What I remember most about it is the French commentators were speaking in French over the English-speaking American reporters, such as Cronkite, and I was wishing they would be quiet so I could hear the English that I could understand a lot better.”

Slepian didn’t come home that summer with a great knowledge of the French language, but he did keep a number of European newspapers from the week of the moon landing, and also took photos — on slide film — of the TV screens where he watched the landing in that restaurant in eastern France.

“It was a very proud day,” Slepian said. “Space exploration, it was just so much more of a mission in those days. The country was kind of unified behind the space effort that had been announced by [President John F.] Kennedy.”

Bird also recalled the optimism surrounding space travel 50 years ago, and jokingly lamented the lack of “Jetsons”-style jet packs — and further moon missions — in contemporary life.

“I am a little disappointed that we still haven’t gotten back there," he said. "The Chinese and the Indians put new rovers down and are getting samples and other stuff."

But even if he didn’t make it to the moon, the moon landing nevertheless had a big impact on Bird.

“It made a big dent in my life because right then I was getting involved in science,” he said. “I got an engineering degree, in biomedical engineering, stuff like that. I blame it all on that.”

Editor’s Note: Readers who would like to share their own recollections of the July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 moon landing in the Carroll County Times should email their story to cctnews@carrollcountytimes.com, and include their name and current town of residence.

If you go

What: Westminster Astronomical Society at Eisenhower National Historic Site Space Day

When: Noon-5 p.m., Saturday, July 20

Where: Eisenhower National Historic Site, 243 Eisenhower Farm Road, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Cost: Free, but shuttle rides to the site $9 for those age 13 and older