Sùil Eile air Apollo 11

Bho colbh an Daily Record. Mo thaing do Daibhidh Woods agus Mairi K, mar is àbhaist. English translation below.

Nam chuimhne, bha mi cho fad’ air falbh bhon taigh ’s b’urrainn dhomh a bhith aig m’ aois.

Bha mi ann am Bràgar, aig dachaigh m’ uncail, taobh eile an eilein.

Bha telebhisean san t-seòmar-suidhe, ri taobh uinneag ìseal. Bha mise nam shuidhe air an làr.

“That’s one small step for man...”

Bha na h-ìomhaighean dubh is geal, làn sneachda dealain.

Ach bha fios agam, fiù ’s mar phàiste, gun robh sinn ann am fianais seòrsa de mhìorbhail.

Anns na lethcheud bliadhna th’ air a dhol seachad chan eil am faireachadh sin air falbh.

Tha na rinn iad, Niall Armstrong agus Buzz Aldrin, le bhith a’ coiseachd air a’ Ghealaich, fhathast a’ cur iongantas orm.

Bidh mo charaid, a tha na eòlaiche air na speuran, a’ toirt leis ball-coise agus ball teanas a-steach a sgòiltean, ’s iad a’ riochdachadh na Cruinne agus na Gealaich.

Ann am meudachd, tha iad an ìre mhath ceart a-rèir a chèile.

Dè cho fad ’s a dh’fheumas am ball teanas a bhith bhon Chruinne gus sealltainn cho fada ’s a dh’fheumadh na h-astronauts siubhail? Faid do ghàirdein, dà mheatair, còig? 

Bhitheadh an ball teanas 7.5 meatair air falbh, sin 238,900 mìltean.

Bhon a thàinig an sgioba mu dheireadh, Apollo 17, dhachaigh chan eil clann an duine air a bhith cho fad ri mearachd pàiste bho uachdar na talmhainn.

Translation

In my memory, I was as far away from the house as I could be for my age.

I was in Bragar, at my uncle’s home, on the other side of the island.

There was a television in the living room, beside a low window. I was sitting on the floor.

“That’s one small step for man...”

The images were black and white, full of static snow.

But I knew, even as an infant, that we were witness to some kind of miracle.

In the fifty years since that feeling has not gone away.

What they did, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin by walking on the moon, still amazes me.

My friend, who is a space expert, takes a football and a tennis ball into schools, representing the Earth and the Moon. In scale, they are about the right proportion to each other.

How far does the tennis ball need to be from the Earth to show how far the astronauts had to travel?

The length of your arm, two metres, five? The tennis ball has to be 7.5 metres away, that’s 238,900 miles.

Since the last crew, Apollo 17, returned home humanity has not gone the width of an infant’s finger from the surface of the earth.