File:AS08-13-2344 - Apollo 8 - Apollo 8 Mission image, Moon - NARA - 16670225.jpg

• Scope and content: The original database describes this as:

Description: Apollo 8,Moon. Principle Point Latitude and Longitude on Horizon. Camera Tilt Mode: High Oblique. Direction: Northwest. Sun Angle 5 degrees. Original Film Magazine was labeled E. Camera Data: 70mm Hasselblad; F-Stop: F-5.6; Shutter Speed: 1/250 second. Film Type: Kodak SO-3400 Black and White,ASA 40. Other Photographic Coverage: Lunar Orbiter 4 (LO IV) V-5.1,V-6, V-11a, V-11b,V-12 and V-9.1. Flight Date: December 21-27,1968.

Subject Terms: Apollo 8 Flight, Lunar Photography, Craters

Categories: Lunar Observations

Original: Film - 70MM B&W

Interior_Exterior: Exterior

Ground_Orbit: On-orbit

This photo was used in Figure 2-12 of the Analysis of Apollo 8 Photography and Visual Observations (SP-201), which has the following caption:

Cauchy domes and rilles (Apollo 8 frame 2344-E).

The text of the Analysis refers to the figure as follows:

Mare Fecunditatis, the Secchi peninsula (target of opportunity (T/O) 78a), and Mare Tranquillitatis were photographed most often by forward-looking obliques. A large block of photographs of this area is on magazine E. One sequence (frames 2339 to 2345) —in addition to some rather dark, poorly detailed pictures of Messier and Messier A (T/O 75), Mare Fecunditatis, and the Secchi peninsula— includes two excellent, well-exposed, and well-illuminated scenes in Mare Tranquillitatis taken with the 250-mm lens. One of these (fig. 2- 12), which includes the Cauchy rilles and Cauchy domes (T/O 87, frame 2344), shows the area better than does any Lunar Orbiter photograph and is useful in spite of the extreme obliquity and low resolution. The same description applies to the other frame (2345, fig. 2-13) in the vicinity of landing site 1 where, unfortunately, the window cuts off the landing site 1 from view. The so-called training sequence (frames 2271 to 2309) is an improvement over Lunar Orbiter IV photography in approximately the first two frames, where the near scene is within the poor Lunar Orbiter IV frame H-61. The next frames, however, within the area covered by Lunar Orbiter I frame M-41 and Lunar Orbiter IV frames H-66 and H-73, are not particularly useful. The western, near-terminator pictures in the vicinity of landing site 1 are underexposed and are north of landing site 1 proper. The only good frames in this sequence are frames 2300 to 2309 (fig. 2-14), which were taken when the camera was pointed back. The film sensitivity had also improved greatly, possibly through prefogging. Crater densities, fine textures in several geologic units (including one probably like that in landing site 1, unit tm in fig. 2-14), and relations among mare ridges (showing overlap of a subdued ridge by a sharp one) are all brought out in the low-Sun illumination (fig. 2-14).

The figure is referenced again in a discussion of volcanic landforms:

The only probable volcanic domes observed in the photography are the Cauchy domes, which are clearly visible in frame 2344 (fig. 2-12). The Sun angle and viewing direction of this photograph were suitable for the delineation of the difference in appearance of the smooth-surfaced, broad, low domes with distinct summit craters from that of the rugged domes.