NASA's Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (ALSJ) records the details of each mission's period on the lunar surface as a timeline of the activities undertaken, the dialogue between the crew and Mission Control, and the relevant documentary records. Each photograph taken on the mission is catalogued there and each photographic sequence (i.e. 'panorama') is also recorded. The panoramas would be in the form of a number of overlapping images that would be airbrushed together as a panoramic mosaic once the film had been processed back on Earth. By recording the site in this way, all other aspects of the mission to the surface could be placed in context. This page tabulates the Apollo 12 panoramas and, where appropriate, provides updated representations blended using more recent, digital, technologies than the originals. Although the taking of panoramic photos on the surface featured highly in the plans of all the landings, the process by which the astronauts were trained to take them is not well recorded (Phinney is probably the best source). Although some members of the astronauts corps were acknowledged as being "camera buffs", the majority had little or no experience of the principles of photography, and all required training in the use of the chosen camera, the Hasselblad 500 EL, long considered as one of the best cameras available. As good as the cameras were, the astronauts had to overcome dealing without a viewfinder, and manually changing the aperture and exposure settings to make allowance for the low Sun angles, all while wearing a spacesuit. Each frame for a panoramic mosaic would require individual changes, for example.
Context Having proven the viability of landing on the Moon with Apollo 11, NASA extended the objectives of Apollo 12 in two key areas; executing a precision landing close to a known target, and extended surface EVA activities. The first was achieved when the Lunar Module, Intrepid, touched down within sight of Surveyor 3 which had landed on the Moon over 2 years previously. Whereas the Apollo 11 crew only had up to 150 minutes during their single EVA, the Apollo 12 crew more than tripled that amount over two Moonwalks, which included a visit to the Surveyor craft. In terms of photography, almost four times as many photos were taken compared to its predecessor, with a similar proportion being used for panoramas. Unlike Apollo 11 though, a higher proportion of these were taken whilst on the surface rather than inside the LM before or after the EVAs. The post-mission Preliminary Science Report indicates that the crew took 23 panoramas whereas the ALSJ records 29 examples. In some cases, the complete, 360° panoramas were impacted by the low Sun angle and greater detail can be gained by omitting the down-Sun exposures from the panoramic sequences. The report also indicated that the original panoramas were analysed "with high precision, from measurements of glass-plate reproductions of the photographs", whereas modern panorama technologies have rendered such approaches as obsolete. To assist in gaining bearings, the Lunar Module (LM) Intrepid, landed with its door and ladder leg (AKA "+Z strut") pointing about 25° north of due west. The Sun's elevation was between 7.5° and 9.5° for EVA 1, and 15.8° and 17.8° for EVA 2.
Panoramas taken from inside the Lunar Module Following the successful landing of Apollo 11, the emphasis on collecting contingency photos and samples was greatly reduced for Apollo 12. The flight plan simply states "Describe & Photograph Lunar Surface" as the first action after the immediate post-landing activities (Page 133 Apollo 12 Flight Plan). Subsequently, there are 4 non-EVA panoramas taken from the LM on Apollo 12.
EVA Panoramas Almost every historical reference on Apollo 12 notes the congeniality of the crew towards each other. This comes through in the dialogue between Pete Conrad and Al Bean during their EVAs, which was peppered with chuckles and giggles throughout, and also within the photos, with both taking "Tourist Shots" of the other at various points. Despite Bean's issues with the TV camera, the standard of photography taken on the stills cameras is particularly striking - especially in the monochrome portraits (Not included here).
Post mission analysis The primary purpose of taking the panoramic images was to provide the context, or placement, of the activities undertaken during the EVAs. The initial analysis was presented in the Apollo 12 Preliminary Science Report. The images continue to be revisited periodically with new, cleaner, representations of the panoramas after being processed by increasingly sophisticated software packages. Examples of these include LPI's Apollo Surface Panorama page, NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) 'Anniversary' Panoramas, Mike Constantine's Apollo: The Panoramas, and Andy Saunders' Apollo Remastered.
See also Apollo 11 Apollo 14 Apollo 15 Apollo 16
Footnotes These tables catalogue the panoramic photos captured during the Apollo 12 mission. Those thumbnails in the "Reference Panorama" and "Notes" columns have been included from 'official' NASA resources such as ALSJ and LPI. Entries in the 'Alternate Panorama' column have been assembled using panorama-blending software fed with the high resolution scans of the original frames held within the "Project Apollo Archive" on Flickr. Where a Reference Panorama is pre-existing, that has been used in preference to creating a new variant, unless there is additional value to be gained by regenerating it. Apart from some source image masking, all such new variants have been created using the minimum of processing, relying on the software package's inherent blending and optimisation capabilities - typically, such panoramas have been created within 3-5 minutes as they are intended to be 'representations' rather than 'definitive' examples. Sub-panoramas follow the full panorama and are denoted using green highlighting. All 4-digit 'Start Frame' and 'End Frame' references relate to the last 4 digits of the image names. The full image names follow the format AS12-MM-IIII, where MM relates to the Magazine number and IIII is the identifier. All tabular data, such as time and image identifiers, has been extracted from the ALSJ. The entries in the 'Location' column relate to the term used for the panorama as listed in the ALSJ's 'Assembled Panoramas' section.
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