Random Acts of Verbiage

Thirty five years ago today, Apollo 16‘s Lunar Module (LM-11) Orion landed in the Descartes highland region on the Moon. To commemorate, here are two images from the surface of la Luna.

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Credit: NASA (Source)

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Credit: NASA (Source)

The top image was taken by Commander John Young of LMP Charles Duke Jr. on the edge of Plum crater. The “Lunar Module pilot, is photographed collecting lunar samples at Station No. 1 during the mission’s first extravehicular activity at the Descartes landing site.” The bottom image is of John taken by Charlie (with John in mid-jump).

Check out the Apollo 16 Wikipedia article for more info and images (which also has a video clip of the lunar rover). You can also peruse NASA History Division’s On The Moon With Apollo 16: A guidebook to the Descartes Region. And be sure to stop by Google Moon to see the relative positions of the lunar landers.

Oh, happy National Astronomy Day!

For more astronomy photographs, see my Space Saturday Archive.