A Grand Old Flag Demo

I put together this tabletop flag simulation back in 2002. Unfortunately I didn't align the cameras properly and my flag was a very rough imitation of the actual bunching pattern on the Apollo 16 flag that John Young so proudly saluted. I plan to do a better model one of these years, but for now I'm keeping this on as a historic curiosity.

In this overhead view, a few stripes can be seen of the US flag. Because Charlie Duke was clearly standing on lower ground when he snapped his picture, I put the model flag on a book to simulate the extra height. Finally--you'll have to use your imagination here--that rope puzzle represents Jumping John.

Click on either camera to see what they saw.

To set up this simulation, I found a GIF flag on the 'Net, modified it to give a slight sag, and it's available here. For the flagpole I used a piece of coat hanger, that wondrous tool for doing anything but hanging coats.

I also wanted to give my paper flag a billowy crease, but paper doesn't billow as well as nylon. I did the best I could with Scotch tape (that wondrous substance that will tape anything but scotch). The sim wasn't perfect, but close enough to understand how the flag got so misshapen on TV.

And here is how it looked from the "Lunar Rover TV camera" side:

Then I moved around to the "Charlie Duke" side to get this picture: