Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal Banner

 

Buzz's Plus-Y Pan

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 2002 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library
Last revised 15 July 2019.

 

The frames in this pan (assembly by Brian McInall are AS11-40- 5905 to 5916.]

Frame 5905 was taken toward the southwest and is an excellent picture of the flag, the TV cable, and, in the background, some boulders on the local ridge.

Frame 5915 shows most of the Descent Stage. The MESA is in the shadowed area at right center.

As Buzz finishes the pan, Neil passes in front of him and, in AS11-40- 5916, we see the back of Neil's suit and legs. Unfortunately, there is no sign of the Gold Camera in the image.

Journal Contributor Rob South calls attention to the lighter-colored surface in the center foreground.

As we know from orbital photos, the area around the LM is scoured by the descent engine and that the scoured area has a higher albedo and, hence a lighter color. Once the astronauts get outside, they knock the soil around with their feet and restore the immediate area to something like its normal brightness. This can be seen quite dramatically in any number of post-EVA taken out the LM windows on A11 and the other missions and even in high-res details from Pan camera frames.When the astronauts work well away from the LM, they are on surfaces undisturbed by the descent engine and the soil they disturb does not have a noticeably different albedo from undisturbed soil.

The patch of lighter-colored soil in 5916 has been scoured by Eagle's descent engine but has not yet been disurbed by the crew.

 

Journal Home Page Apollo 11 Journal Return to text