Reno Presentation - Hi-Res Nessie Photo Available ?

[Bruce Thomas]

The TIGHAR Tracks I've quoted from has a photo of Fred Noonan on page 7, working on the plane, with the caption:

"In Lae, New Guinea Fred Noonan assists with maintenance on the left engine propeller hub of NR16020. The bottom edge of the worm gear is clearly visible on the rear side of the left main landing gear strut."

Can your provide a link to that TIGHAR tracks or at least it's title so we can find it too.

gl

In his earlier postings on this thread (#19, #26), Shannon ID'd the TIGHAR Tracks issue as being dated Oct/Dec 2011, and I infer his latest comment is to that issue as well.  Alas, none of the 2011 issues have been made available in the TIGHAR Tracks archives on this website as of yet.  Individual TIGHAR members do have their own hardcopy issues, of course -- one of the advantages of being a card-carrying dues-paying member.   :)

[Monty Fowler]

As Ric has noted many times, "Increasing vision is increasingly expensive." At the risk of sounding trite - which is not my intent - there's nothing stopping anyone on this forum, or anywhere else for that matter, from ponying up their own $$$$$ to get their own copy of the photo and do their own analysis. Since I don't have those kind of $$$$, I shovel what $$$$ I do have to the people I think will get the most bang for my buck - their initials are T I G H A R.

LTM, who trys to pick the winning ponies,

Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 CER

[Tim Collins]

Original hi-res can theoretically be ordered here:

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/5807/imaging_orderform.pdf

Here's the reference to the Bevington photo album; however I don't know how to request a specific image:

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/blcas/bevington-er.html

While a hi res scan of the photo is great, but if I'm not mistaken I think that Ric et al were working from a hi res copy of the original negative. 

[Sheila Shigley]

Original hi-res can theoretically be ordered here:

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/5807/imaging_orderform.pdf

Here's the reference to the Bevington photo album; however I don't know how to request a specific image:

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/blcas/bevington-er.html

While a hi res scan of the photo is great, but if I'm not mistaken I think that Ric et al were working from a hi res copy of the original negative.

I believe that when visiting Bevington's home, they took a photo of one of his photos, and it was the negative from their photo-of-a-photo which was (re)scanned at some point; but isn't the recent discussion related to a re-scan of the original photo?

If they've indeed located the original negatives for Bevington's photo album, that would be outstanding!  If Oxford maintains Bevington's negatives along with the photo album, they don't mention it in the inventory; however, print or digital copies can generally be ordered from negatives in the Bodleian collections--so unless there's a special restriction on Bevington's items, the general public could pay for a copy/scan from the original negative.  I believe we are more likely discussing, though, a high(er)-res scan of the original photo.

But I imagine the final prize will be what they were able to then do with that re-scan.

I'm intrigued by Reuters' use of "undercarriage" (http://goo.gl/8dNpg) instead of the more-expected "landing gear" and secretly hope that means there's even more news coming (was only the "Nessie" photo re-scanned, or could there be a revelation from new scans of Bevington's other photos as well?), but it's all plenty exciting as-is.

[Tim Collins]

Maybe I was wrong on that. I thought I remembered mention of obtaining a copy of the negative itself. I'm sure it's mentioned somewhere around here.

[Shannon Council]

Can your provide a link to that TIGHAR tracks or at least it's title so we can find it too.

gl

In her earlier postings on this thread (#19, #26), Shannon ID'd the TIGHAR Tracks issue as being dated Oct/Dec 2011, and I infer her latest comment is to that issue as well.  Alas, none of the 2011 issues have been made available in the TIGHAR Tracks archives on this website as of yet.  Individual TIGHAR members do have their own hardcopy issues, of course -- one of the advantages of being a card-carrying dues-paying member.   :)

Gary : I received a .pdf file of the Tracks in question from Pat. She was out of the dead tree version. If you are a member ( sorry, I don't know if you are or not ) you could email her and request the same.

Bruce : She is a actually a He!  :o  Perhaps I should update my profile picture.

[Bruce Thomas]

Bruce : She is a actually a He!  :o  Perhaps I should update my profile picture.

Gulp!  Sorry, Shannon.  It must be Beeker's red hair in your profile photo that threw me off!   ::)

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

Breaking news from Ric Gillespie:

"On April 26 Jeff Glickman and I will be at Rhodes House, University of Oxford to get a much better copy of the Bevington photo than we've had to work with to date. Back in 1992, Pat took copy-photos of Bevington's collection when we visited him at his retirement home in the south of England.  After Eric died, his papers and photos went to the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Oxford.  In 2010, we asked the library to scan the image for us to get better resolution.  The best they could do was 600 dpi but that was a big improvement over the copy-photo.  Now we've made arrangements for Jeff to get the best image possible with the best available technology.  Our hope is that, with a better image, we can show the public what the experts have been seeing.  It's one thing to ask people to "take our word for it" that the blob in the photo is the wreckage of an Electra land gear. It's another to be able to show them the tire, the mud flap, the strut, the worm gear, etc.  Of course, a better image may show the object to be an abandoned cement mixer, but that's a risk we'll take.

"Whatever we're able to get from the high-resolution image will be revealed for the first time at Jeff's forensic imaging presentation at Earhart Search 75.  Feel free to mention all of this when promoting the symposium."

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

[Heath Smith]

Is the cement mixer a joke? How would there be a cement mixer on Gardner in 1938?

Thanks.

[Bruce Thomas]

Is the cement mixture a joke?

No, but this is!   :D

[Chris Johnson]

Is the cement mixture a joke? How would there be a cement mixer on Gardner in 1938?

Thanks.

Jack Kimo (sp) had a cement mixer, he used it to build the water cisturn on the island!!!!!

Unfortunatly it was after Nessie was taken.

Have read that it travelled on a raft between islands pulled by canoes.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

News from Ric:

This morning at Rhodes House Library, Oxford University, Jeff Glickman used a new Nikon D800 Digital SLR camera with a 400mm 40mm macro lens and a ring light to acquire a high-resolution image of the Bevington Photo. The image we have now is much better than the 600 dpi scan the library did for us in 2010.

Jeff will need to apply some special techniques to extract more information from the image after he gets home but at this point we already know:

- There are no surprises, and that is very good. The visible structures continue to appear consistent with wreckage of the Electra's main landing gear assembly.

- We have considerably more information than we had before. How much more remains to be seen, but our mission here is a success.

We had great cooperation from the university.  Mark Smith videoed the whole pains-taking operation. All three of us will be home by tomorrow evening.

[Irvine John Donald]

I would like to know how Jeff G got his hands on the new Nikon D800.  So new to the market I still can't get one here in Canada. LOL

[Tom Swearengen]

IRV----gotta have connections------State Dept, TIGHAR, Ballard------pretty good horsepower!