Apollo 11 surface photography
Photography was Apollo 11’s primary scientific record of the surface — the data behind the lunar field geology experiment and the means by which the landed module’s location was fixed. The Mission Report (§11.7) lists objectives spanning command-module long-distance and orbital-mapping photography, descent/stay/ascent sequence coverage, and stills through the window and on the surface. Three film systems were used on the surface:
- 70-mm Hasselblad still camera — a data camera (60-mm lens) carried on the commander’s RCU chest mount and used through the LM window and on the surface; the source of the mission’s iconic surface stills.
- 16-mm Maurer sequence camera — ran during descent, the EVA, and ascent. The descent film was used to determine the landed LM’s location, and one window sequence caught the surface “change from a light to a very dark color wherever the crew walked” (the disturbed regolith later seen from orbit by LROC).
- Apollo Lunar Surface Close-up Camera (ALSCC) — a stereo macro camera (designed by T. Gold) that imaged 17 areas, each 3 × 3 inches, of rocks, soil, and ground cracks.
Film was selected and calibrated for maximum return (color S0-368/S0-168 and 3400 black-and-white); a 1/250-second shutter was adopted because preflight tests showed a suited crewman induced image blur at slower speeds. The Mission Report rates the 16-mm and still photography “generally excellent,” and the surface stills independently confirmed the descent-film landing-site fix.
Every returned frame is catalogued in the
Apollo 11 photographic index: 1,340 70-mm
Hasselblad frames (numbered AS11-<magazine#>-<frame#>) and 58,159 16-mm frames,
with the surface and EVA stills concentrated in 70-mm magazines Q, R, and S.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Apollo 11 photographic index
- Television broadcast and surface communications
- Apollo 11 EVA (first moonwalk)
- Lunar field geology (Experiment S-059)
- Lunar Module Eagle