NSSDC ID: 1972-031A-01
Mission Name: Apollo 16 Command and Service Module (CSM)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Frederick J. Doyle
The handheld photography experiment included three cameras each on the command module and on the lunar module. On the CM there was a 70-mm Hasselblad electric camera (HEC), a 16-mm data acquisition camera (DAC), and a 35-mm Nikon camera. For the lunar surface, there was a 16-mm data acquisition camera (LDAC), and two 70-mm Hasselblad electric cameras (HEC), one with a 500-mm telephoto lens, and the other with a 60-mm lens. The types of film used in these cameras were II A-0 (spectroscopic) for the S-177 UV photography experiment, SO-368 and SO-168 color films, and 3414 (LBW), 2485 (VHBW), and 3401 black and white films. Photographic targets on the surface of the moon were core tube samples, in situ rock samples (some stereoscopic), panoramas of the landing site rea and surroundings, ALSEP instruments after deployment, trenches, interesting craters, other surface features, and field relationships. From orbit, the photographic targets were the earth and moon in UV (experiment S-177), the lunar farside and eastern limb regions, the solar corona at sunset and sunrise times, the earth's limb during solar eclipse, a comet if available, the lunar libration region, zodiacal light, the near terminator regions of the lunar surface, and the lunar surface in earthshine. The various cameras had several different lenses with different focal lengths. The HEC had lenses with focal lengths of 60, 80, 105, and 250 mm. The 35-mm camera had a 55-mm focal length, and the 16-mm DAC had lenses of 18- and 10-mm focal length. Seventy-five percent of the low-light-level targets were photographed. Thousands of useful photographs were obtained.
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