В NASA тоже шутят

Matt Gibbons has produced a fun treatment of a Hadley Rille pan that he calls Shooting the Rapids

Adam Bootle sends this picture of Dave Scott (right) and Jim Irwin (left) saluting for the camera. Scott and Irwin, part of an all-Air-Force crew, served on the Apollo 12 backup crew and, although they may not have known about the illicit self-timer, this composite would have been a natural.

Adam Bootle sends this picture of Pete Conrad and Al Bean posing next to Surveyor III. Adam writes "I was inspired by Alan Bean's drawing 'The photo we never took' in his book 'Apollo: An Eyewitness Account' (page 114). I thought it was such a shame that they couldn't find the camera self-timer that they had smuggled on board, that I would try to finish the job for them. I think the picture they never took would have done more than get on the cover of LIFE magazine, it probably would have been on of the most printed Apollo pictures along with the 'Aldrin visor' picture. Just think, maybe NASA would have made a self-timer part of the standard kit!"

David Harland (tongue firmly in cheek) has released a previously unknown Apollo 12 picture of Al Bean. The picture was taken by Pete Conrad, whose reflection is clearly visible in the center of Al's faceplate. Note, however, the reflection of a third astronaut, presumably Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon. What is amazing about this picture is the apparent fact that the Apollo 12 crew was able to keep secret Gordon's presence on the lunar surface for so long a time. The picture is similar to AS12-49-7278.

Mauro Freschi has provided a previously unknown Apollo 11 photos showing twin astronauts.

Oliver Summa writes, "In my quest for a decent (computer screen) background picture I began playing around with pixels - and voila! Here's the scenery of Taurus-Littrow after departure of the astronauts!". Oliver used Jack Schmitt's photo AS17-134-20506 to create this visualization. Note the plume deflectors in the original. Although Oliver was careful to remove Gene from the photo - he is working at the CDR's seat in the original - there is a vital clue that gives the game away. Note the position of the flag in the original. As can be determined from Jack's photo AS17-143-21948 taken out the window after EVA-3, it is pointing east. However, at liftoff, the ascent engine exhaust put enough force on the flag to make it point, like a weathervane, directly away from the source of the wind. As can be seen in the post-launch video at about 188:04:30, the flag ended up pointing north, directly away from the descent stage.

Ricardo Salamé Páez has created two Apollo 11 composites called Flag and Earth.

Ricardo Salamé Páez has created two Apollo 11 composites called Where to Park?.

Gene Cernan has commented that one of the reasons that it was difficult to judge distances was the lack of familiar objects like trees and houses. In an effort to remedy that situation for Taurus-Littrow, I have taken a frame from Jack Schmitt's Station 3 pan and have added three appropriately scaled copies of a famous, 15-meter-tall object: one on the southern rim of Lara, one on the lower slope of the South Massif just above Nansen, and one just below the South Massif summit. My wife, Di, says my effort should be called Despicable Violation

Ian Regan writes: "Here is a mosaic that I have just finished working on that shows a view of the Apollo 11 landing site at Mare Tranquillitatis, using Hasselblad photographs taken by Buzz Aldrin. I wanted to produce this composite after browsing through the pictures on Kipp Teague's excellent 'Apollo Archive' website - I saw the opportunity to have Armstrong, Eagle, the Flag and the Sun all in a single frame, using genuine in-flight Apollo photography. I call the mosaic Armstrong and Eagle Under a Blazing Sun. The images I used are AS11-44-6598 (ascent stage photographed by Mike Collins in lunar orbit prior to descent), AS11-40-5886 (Armstrong at the MESA), AS11-40-5887 (more of the descent stage), and AS14-66-9305 (because no A11 images show the sun from the lunar surface).

Carlos Corso writes, "Last year I made an off-road trip with my car. When I returned, some friends were in doubt that I can go anywhere with that old car. My answer was: 'With this car, I can go to the moon'. Then I made the picture. Later, I printed the picture and gave a copy to the buyer when I sold the car."

Adam Bootle has created Salute at Tranquility ( 653k ) and writes "I used AS11-40-5872 (Aldrin erecting SWC) and AS11-40-5874 (Aldrin salute). I had to remove Aldrin from 5872 and remake the landing gear and edit the shadows, then I matched up the portions of the LM and made new shadows so they didn't look like they were diverging too much."

Patrick Vantuyne has combined Apollo 16 image AS16-116-18607 with one of galaxy NGC 4565. The composite ( 386k ) speaks eloquently about humanity's first steps into the Universe.

Gavin Stone has created a startling composite ( 0.4 Mb ). Gavin writes, "The bottom half of the composite is from AS-14-66-9232, taken at about 10:21 USEST on February 5, 1971, after erection of the flag on the first AS-14 EVA. This is the first American in Space, Al Shepard (RIP), in a 'tourist shot' taken by Ed Mitchell at Fra Mauro. The top half of the composite is a cis-lunar shot taken on Apollo 17. I can't remember the exact image I used, but I think it was AS17-48-22718. The UK flag is there, because being a resident of the UK, I hope that one day in the future we work in alliance with the USA and other countries to further explore the Moon and space."

David Harland returns to the ever-popular theme of the Lunar Grand Prix ( 1.1 Mb ).

René Cantin has added the horizon beyond Dave ( 0.2 Mb ) to AS15-82-11129.

René Cantin has created Salute at the Flag, which is built around Dave Scott photo, AS15-92-12447, of Jim saluting. The rpesesnce of Mt. Hadley Delta in the background inspired René to create a more complete panoramic setting. He added AS15-92-12449 and 12450 on the left, "blending them in and re-arranging the foreground." On the right, he used AS15-87-11855, which is a frame from Jim's EVA-2 ALSEP pan but, because the distance between the LM and the ALSEP is small compared with the distance from either to the mountain, gives a good fit. Because 11855 is a color image, some effort was needed to "'match the color pixels to the black-and-white ones". The footprints to the right of the Rover and in the foreground were taken from the top part of AS15-92-12406. Finally, the Rover shadow is from AS15-85-11414 flipped upside down and distorted; the LM's parabolic antenna is from AS15-82-11121; and the cross-hairs have been reworked using AS15-92-12247 was a guide.

Stuart Atkinson has contributed a portrait of Neil Armstrong saluting the U.S. Flag. Stuart's creation combines one Apollo 11 image and one from Apollo 17.

Joe Koziar has used the high-resolution scans now available to us from the original film to revisit Pete and Al during their visit with Surveyor III ( 2.6Mb ). See, also, the 2003 version by Andrew Chaikin and the c.1999 version by Adam Bootle.

In early 2008, Ed Hengeveld used portions of AS11-40-5863 to 69 to create a view of Buzz on the porch (4.0 Mb or 0.4 Mb). Neil did not capture the top rear of the LM with these pictures. Journal Contributor GoneToPlaid points out that Ed filled the gap with a portion of AS17-149-22860, which was taken in orbit after undocking.

Sam Milazzo has created a scene that might be called: "Cut! Who left the %^$*@^ Jeep on the set!?"