Lunar Panoramic Photography - Apollo 14

NASA's Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (ALSJ) records the details of each mission's time on the lunar surface as a timeline of the activities undertaken, the dialogue between the crew and Mission Control, and the relevant documentary records. Each photograph taken on the mission is catalogued there and each photographic sequence is also recorded. This page tabulates the Apollo 14 panoramas and, where appropriate, provides updated representations of the panoramas blended using more recent technologies than the originals.

Context
Despite the successes of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12, Apollo 14 was something of a "Recovery Mission" following the incomplete nature of Apollo 13. Since the decision had already been made for Apollo 13 to visit the Fra Mauro Formation for scientific purposes, this was simply moved forward to be Apollo 14's destination as well. Also, since the mission was designated as an "H" Mission, the profile was similar to the earlier H missions, Apollo 12 (and 13), which called for two EVAs rather than the 3 later in the program. Like Apollo 12, the majority of these EVAs occurred "off-camera" as the TV camera was not designed to be portable. The crew were equipped with the Modular Equipment Transporter - a hand-pulled, "workbench" that only made an appearance on this mission. It featured in one of the two highlights from the EVAs as the crew gamefully tried to manouvre it to the rim of Cone Crater before giving up just 20m short. The other highlight, and probably the event that the mission is best remembered for, was when the Commander, Alan Shepard, attached the head of a golf club to a rake handle and struck a couple of golf balls.

In terms of photography, Apollo 14's crew proved to be less "trigger-happy" than the preceding Apollo 12 crew and only took 417 pictures on the Moon, compared to 583 on the earlier mission. However, 288 of these were components of 17 distinct panoramas and ALSJ lists another 25 sub-panoramas within these.

The post-mission Preliminary Science Report indicates that the crew took 15 panoramas but appears to have missed the "Station C" and "Weird Rock" pans. In some cases, the complete, 360° panoramas were impacted by the low Sun angle and greater detail can be gained by omitting the down-Sun exposures from the panoramic sequences, hence some of the sub-panoramas.

To assist in gaining bearings, the Lunar Module (LM) Antares, landed with its door and ladder leg (AKA "+Z strut") pointing approximately 20° north of due west. The Sun's elevation was between 13° and 15.5° for EVA 1, and 122° and 24.3° for EVA 2.

Non-EVA (LM-based) panoramas
Being the 3rd mission to land on the Moon, the emphasis on taking 'Contingency' photos had declined by Apollo 14. Subsequently, only three LM-based panoramas were taken; on landing, between the two EVAs, and prior to departing.

EVA Panoramas
The Apollo 14 crew, Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell, whether constrained by their workload or otherwise, were less inclined to pause to take photos than their predecessors.