Apollo 13 Movie Flashlight Trivia

So I'm watching Apollo 13 on cable, and notice something for the first time:

As they're dealing with the catastrophe and shutting down the command module, as they move to the LEM, there are 2 or 3 brief scenes where a silver, anodized, aluminum-looking, single-piece-battery-compartment, approx. 2-AA sized flashlight is shown swimming about the cabin. The bezel has 2 thin knurled bands (keep in mind I couldn't rewind) around it, and the end of the bezel opposite the lens is rounded. The barrel seemed smooth. The light is on.....throwing a suspiciously blue beam (LED?). My questions are as follows:

1) Could this be an historically accurate light? Regardless, does anyone know what NASA used in 1970?

2) If not, is it an identifiable modern flashlight that someone mistakenly chucked into the movie for effect?

Cheers & Good Luck (because I sure as heck don't know!),

/TCP

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TCPilot:
So I'm watching Apollo 13 on cable, and notice something for the first time:

As they're dealing with the catastrophe and shutting down the command module, as they move to the LEM, there are 2 or 3 brief scenes where a silver, anodized, aluminum-looking, single-piece-battery-compartment, approx. 2-AA sized flashlight is shown swimming about the cabin. The bezel has 2 thin knurled bands (keep in mind I couldn't rewind) around it, and the end of the bezel opposite the lens is rounded. The barrel seemed smooth. The light is on.....throwing a suspiciously blue beam (LED?). My questions are as follows:

1) Could this be an historically accurate light? Regardless, does anyone know what NASA used in 1970?

2) If not, is it an identifiable modern flashlight that someone mistakenly chucked into the movie for effect?

Cheers & Good Luck (because I sure as heck don't know!),

/TCP<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

TCP,

I have no idea what that light is, but I'll bet you're a h*ll of a pilot because in those brief glimpses you spotted 9 or 10 specific characteristics of the light (without rewinding). That's impressive. (Were you an LEO in a former incarnation?)

Brightnorm

This has been asked, before, I think over on usenet:rec.knives...Anyways, I think some ex-NASA guy said that a majority of equipment in those days was unique and hand made, so it probably wasn't a factory piece.

--dan

You know i remember seeing that too. It floated by the camera. I think there was another shot of it while they were broadcasting back down to Earth. Remember that? I'll have to check when i get back from school. I have the movie on tape. I first thought it was a mag-light. I too wondered what a light like that was doing in space during that time. I always thought flashlights in the 70s were big.

There was a scene where the guy that thought he had chicken pox has to simulate starting up the computer for re-entry and has to do it under 20 amps (or was it 4 amps?)

He says I need a flashlight, and someone hands him a big flashlight, and he hands it back, and says "that's not what they have up there, I don't want anything that they do not have up there", and he is shown working with a smaller pocket sized flashlight.

Sadly, I was in and out of the room and didn't get much of the scene where Gary Sinise is trying to power up and keep it under 20 amps (he kept going over by about 4).

Also, the light is clearly not a maglite, the bezel is abruptly rounded off rather than swept cleanly towards the barrel as maglites are.

dano, I'm not willing to give Hollywood that much credit for realism...I don't think they'd be able to come up with a new-looking custom one-off from 1970's-era NASA, or one of the Apollo missions. In any case, we should find out who made those lights back then and invite him/her to the forum .

LEDagent, I'll look forward to your opinion if you get a chance to review the movie on tape!

brightnorm, I never was a LEO or similar, I think I'm just probably super-an@l, which is why I became a pilot.

/TCP

The light in the original Apollo 13 was made
out of brass, and i saw it on martha stewart.
Check out this thread for more info.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=001265

I'm home now and i'll pop in the video. I'll try to take some pictures of the screen as i see the flashlight...we'll see how they turn out.

last week i saw the first flashlight in space - it reminded me of the ls arc

Apollo 13 was on TV here on the weekend. Guess which geek sat ready and waiting with his finger on the "capture" button?



Best I could get, it was a-floating pretty quick and the sun was shining right accross my screen so I couldn`t see so well.




Copyright whenever, by whoever. I forgot to note the relavent info at the end of the movie.

wow almost looks like an arc ls with the double aa pack! eerie ain't it.

Yes, it does look suspiciously like an ARC LS!

I wonder if Mr. Gransee has ever been in space?

/TCP

The Apollo 11 penlight is on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

NASM--Apollo to the Moon--Clothing and Accessories p.2

It's amazing that NASA got Apollo to fly if they mispelled "ARC" as "ACR" on their flashlight.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Aragorn:
last week i saw the first flashlight in space - it reminded me of the ls arc<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

maybe im invisible too since obviously no one hears me

The batteries must be getting low in the green laser, Aragorn.

I heard ya. And now I KNOW you're right.