APOD: Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar... (2020 Jan 17)

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APOD Robot
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APOD: Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar... (2020 Jan 17)

Post by APOD Robot » Fri Jan 17, 2020 5:06 am

Image Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar Orbit

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this awesome stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972, one orbit before descending to land on the Moon. The stereo anaglyph was assembled from two photographs (AS17-147-22465, AS17-147-22466) captured from his vantage point on board the Lunar Module Challenger as he and Dr. Harrison Schmitt flew over Apollo 17's landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The broad, sunlit face of the mountain dubbed South Massif rises near the center of the frame, above the dark floor of Taurus-Littrow to its left. Beyond the mountains, toward the lunar limb, lies the Moon's Mare Serenitatis. Piloted by Ron Evans, the Command Module America is visible in orbit in the foreground against the South Massif's peak.

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MarkBour
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Re: APOD: Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar... (2020 Jan 17)

Post by MarkBour » Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:15 am

Okay, thanks for sharing your travel photos with the class, Eugene. Children, who wants to go next?
Mark Goldfain

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Re: APOD: Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar... (2020 Jan 17)

Post by Matthias S » Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:06 am

I’m very surprised to learn that the command module is so far below the lunar module. Now I wonder what were the trajectories of the LM and the CM after separation...

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Re: APOD: Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar... (2020 Jan 17)

Post by orin stepanek » Fri Jan 17, 2020 12:53 pm

At a glance it looks like CM America is lower in orbit than Apollo 17! :shock: :rocketship:
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Re: APOD: Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar... (2020 Jan 17)

Post by neufer » Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:34 pm

orin stepanek wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 12:53 pm
Matthias S wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:06 am I’m very surprised to learn that the command module is so far below the lunar module. Now I wonder what were the trajectories of the LM and the CM after separation...
At a glance it looks like CM America is lower in orbit than Apollo 17! :shock:
Perhaps it was really one orbit after ascending from the Moon.

(The LM is designed to carry extra fuel so no use wasting it when it can help the CM to lift all those lunar rocks away from the Moon.)
Art Neuendorffer

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