Marty McGuire
Amateur Astronomer ("Backyard Astronomy Guy")
A 2021 poll* of US adults asked, “In your opinion, how likely is it that the following [scenario is] true? The 1969 landing on the moon didn’t occur and was actually staged somewhere in Arizona.”
The results showed that 27% answered with “not sure,” “probably true,” or “definitely true!”
This poll isn’t an outlier. It’s consistent with another poll** taken that year, showing 29% with similar responses!
Especially concerning is that these beliefs are more prevalent among younger generations, those born after 1980.
We skeptics have seen this situation play out again and again--an evidence-based rational claim is rejected by a sizable portion of the public, which instead supports an apparently absurd alternative explanation for the evidence. What can we do?
Our next speaker has stepped up to the challenge. On his own initiative, Marty McGuire (the “Backyard Astronomy Guy” of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) examined the publicly available online science data compiled by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has surveyed the Moon’s surface from orbit for several years. In April 2021, it flew especially close to the Apollo 11 and 12 landing sites, obtaining the best images of those historic sites since 1969.
Mr. McGuire will demonstrate how he was able to (as anyone who wants to have a look for themselves can) obtain the raw images from ISRO and process them. He’s shared the instructions and images across social media for the benefit of any other “do it yourself” researchers. He and NCAS President Scott Snell (an engineer for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) will discuss this and other evidence of the Apollo landings.
Mr. McGuire, a marketing director for a community bank by day, is also a “NASA Solar System Ambassador” volunteer, communicating the science and excitement of NASA's space exploration missions and discoveries with people in his community. By night he is an amateur astronomer, known online as the “Backyard Astronomy Guy.”
* The Economist/YouGov
Poll, “Belief in Conspiracy Theories,” https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/w2zmwpzsq0/econTabReport.pdf
** University of New Hampshire, Carsey School of Public Policy,
“Conspiracy vs. Science: A Survey of U.S. Public Beliefs,” https://scholars.unh.edu/carsey/448/
