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  Apollo 17 and the "Great Cross"

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Author Topic:   Apollo 17 and the "Great Cross"
FordPrefect
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Posts: 26
From: Karlsruhe, Germany
Registered: Apr 2005

posted 04-13-2008 12:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for FordPrefect     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In the Apollo 17 LM transcripts I've found the following part on page 78, which includes the final fly-past over the landing site one revolution prior landing:
quote:
CDR: Gosh, we've got Family Mountain. We've got - of course, the massif. We can see the Scarp; we can see the light mantle; I've got the Great Cross; Camelot; Sherlock.
To what is Gene referring to when he says the "great cross"? I could not find any info about this at the ALSJ. Is the "great cross" an imaginary cross of which one axis is parallel to the scarp and the other to maybe a line connecting the craters Camelot and Sherlock?

Any thoughts welcome. Thank you!

Blackarrow
Member

Posts: 3160
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 04-14-2008 06:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
At first I thought this might have been an error in the transcript (it wouldn't have been a first!) but I found the movie footage taken from onboard "Challenger" as they passed over the landing site (with synchronised sound) and Cernan definitely says "great cross." And the answer is in the footage. Watch as the Taurus-Littrow valley comes into view, before and during the camera-tilt: the craters on the valley floor look like a great big cross. Q.E.D.

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