Metric Photography

Description

The purpose of this experiment was to obtain high-quality metric photographs of the lunar surface taken simultaneously with photographs from the stellar camera. A laser altimeter, which was used in conjunction with the mapping camera, accurately measured the distance to the terrain being photographed for selenodetic purposes. The stellar photographs provided accurate spacecraft orientation (attitude) data. The metric camera was capable of 20-m resolution from an orbital altitude of 100 km. The metric camera had a 76-mm (3-in) focal length and used 3400 B/W film, and the f/2.8, 35-mm stellar camera used 3401 B/W film. The camera system was mounted in the SIM bay of the CSM and operated automatically. The targets were the same as those for the panoramic camera--farside features, eastern limb areas, nearside maria, the LM landing site, near-terminator regions of low-angle illumination, and possible Apollo 17 landing areas. The photographs had 78 percent overlap for each frame and 55 percent side overlap between consecutive revolutions. Over 2000 useful photographs were obtained.