Space Mission
Apollo 11, July 16-24, 1969, 109:30:53 GET
Exhibition(s)
Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, La Lune: Du Voyage Réel aux Voyages Imaginaires, April-July 2019; exhibition catalogue, pp. 26-27, no. 19, illustrated.
Photographer
Neil Armstrong
Photo Description
Four unreleased photographs, USGS (United States Geological Survey) vintage gelatin silver “proof” prints on fiber-based paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “AS11-40-5855, AS11-40-5856, AS11-40-5857, AS11-40-5858” in bottom margin, with original USGS marks and numbers on the prints identifying lunar rocks at Tranquillity Base; the second photograph [AS11-40-5856] was inverted in error when printed
Essay
This is the northern portion of the first panoramic sequence ever taken on the Moon’s surface by Neil Armstrong (separated by a gap in the sequence from the southern portion constituted by frames AS11-40-5850 to AS11-40-5854).
Armstrong took this panorama (originally shot on color film) with the Hasselblad from a position west of the ladder in the shadow of the LM while he was waiting for Buzz to start out thru the hatch.
These overlapping photographs allowed to identify features in the landscape of Tranquillity Base such as distant craters (such as a sharp-rimmed crater on the horizon in the second photograph).
The shadow of the LM Eagle is in the foreground; the last photograph shows Eagle’s north leg and footpad.
“It is very easy to see in the shadows after you adapt for a little while. When you first come down the ladder, you’re in the shadow. You can see everything perfectly; the LM and things on the ground. When you walk out into the sunlight and then back into the shadow, it takes a while to adapt,” said later Neil Armstrong (1969 Technical Debrief, from the ALSJ mission transcript at 109:27:13 GET).