Photo by Jay Brand on Pexels
Less than 200 meters separated Apollo 12’s Lunar Module Intrepid from the robotic Surveyor 3 lander when the crew touched down on the Moon. That is about 650 feet, a short walk across the lunar soil. The landing occurred in the western Ocean of Storms in November 1969, putting astronaut Pete Conrad within easy reach of a machine that had already been sitting in the dirt for two and a half years.
Surveyor 3 had been resting on the inside slope of a small crater since April 1967. When Conrad walked over to inspect it, astronaut Alan Bean documented the visit with his camera. Beyond the far crater wall, the Intrepid sat visible on the horizon, marking the first time humans had targeted and landed next to an existing probe on another world.
Two frames from the crater
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day recently featured the encounter as a 3D red and blue anaglyph, credited to the Apollo 12 crew and Alan Bean, with stereo image copyright held by Kevin Frank. Building the composite required combining two separate photos, cataloged as AS12-48-7133 and AS12-48-7134, both exposed directly on the lunar surface.
The two source frames capture the scene from slightly offset angles. That gap approximates the distance between human eyes, providing the stereoscopic depth needed for the anaglyph effect. Viewed with standard red and blue glasses, the composite pulls Conrad, the robotic craft, and the crater rim into distinct layers, giving the flat 1969 scan a sense of physical volume.
Viewers using high definition versions can inspect the full frame by manipulating the zoom tool and moving the side and bottom bars across the lunar terrain.
Source: Freerepublic
This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance.
