posted 08-04-2009 09:53 AM               

One of the operational considerations for landing sites was the local sun angle; favorable sun angles moved farther west as the lunar month progressed. Thus, alternate landing sites progressively farther westward were chosen in case the launch date should slip. See the "Lunar landing site lighting and location" section on this Apollo Flight Journal page.

posted 08-04-2009 10:55 AM               

As with the unmanned Surveyor landers (and with the Mars landers), Apollo 11 aimed for a "landing ellipse" at each site. The ellipse was considered the general margin of error around a targeted area, anywhere inside of which would probably be ok to land. Part of the problem with Apollo 11 was that Eagle was "long" by several kilometers as it entered powered descent. It was thus farther along the landing ellipse than planned. Since the terrain was relatively featureless, it was difficult for the crew to know exactly where they were. They knew they were long, but not by how much.

posted 08-26-2010 07:24 PM            

I have tried to find out where the actual landing site was in relation to candidate landing site 2. Does anyone know the coordinates for this oval or does anyone know if NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has taken a photograph of the site?

What I would really like to see is a LRO image that contains both the Apollo 11 landing site and the area contained in candidate landing site 2.

posted 08-28-2010 04:12 PM               

Having extensively studied the Lunar Orbiter and Apollo (and now Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) photography of Site 3 in Sinus Medii, I can tell you that changes in lighting angle and resolution between photos can make the same ground features look very different. However, I have annotated these three photos so that you can see the same features in all three of them. Click on the image to see an enlargement.

You are correct that the shape of the ovals is different. The version you posted is a slightly smaller area than the landing ellipse depicted in subsequent documents. The exact boundaries of the initial Apollo landing ellipses were not really precisely drawn between various maps. Rather, they were centered on a common area and had slightly varied major and minor axes.

posted 08-28-2010 07:11 PM            

I took a look at this LRO image and in the photo I posted just left of the area you marked with a red circle there is a crater that looks like it’s been jabbed into the moons surface with a pencil tip. It has a very small, dark centre with a depressed area around it. On the LRO image this crater can be seen east of the Apollo 11 landing site right on the border of the image. To the south west of this crater there is a larger more subdued crater with two small craters on its rim just to the north west and south east, the northern crater is very bright and in the image I posted the southern crater has a white line running vertically through it from where the LO strip photos were joined. This crater marks the western edge of the Site 2 photo that I posted and the landing site is further west than this as seen on the LRO image. This all ties in with the observation that the Apollo 11 LM landed down range of the chosen site.

That's a long time mystery solved for me so to honour that fact and the fact that this is my 500th post, here is a picture of Neil and Buzz seen inside the lunar module following their moonwalk at Tranquility Base.

posted 09-08-2010 05:34 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by APG85:
Obviously two pics cut together. Still neat...

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posted 09-15-2010 06:57 AM               

Thought I'd share this press shot, July 11, Canaveral.

posted 09-15-2010 08:36 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by oche16:
Rob, awesome photo of the LEM on the surface! Mind if I copy it?

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