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Product Name: Alan Bean holding up

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This is a picture of Alan Bean holding up a Special Environmental Examiner Container [sic]. This picture was taken off a camera that was strapped to Conrad's chest. If the camera was attached to Conrad's chest, the top of Bean's helmet L should not be in this picture. The device Bean is holding is called the "Special Environmental Sample Container" (or SESC). There are several reasons why we see the top of Bean's helmet here. First, the lunar surface is not flat and from the location of the middle of the frame here, it is apparent that the relatively short Pete Conrad is probaby standing on higher ground than his taller crewmate Alan Bean. Second, the helmet is roughly spherical in shape, so we can see around towards the top of it and finally, because of the backpacks, the astronauts tended to lean forward somewhat to balance in the lunar gravity. The same aguments made for this image could be made for the picture of Buzz Aldrin shown earlier. You can see this in another famous Apollo 11 image of Buzz Aldrin saluting the Flag: AS11-40-5874 seen here in an image from the collection at the ALSJ. All of the shadows reflected in Bean's visor M are going off in separate directions, not in parallel lines like they should be. And why should they be going off in parallel lines? The astronaut's visor is spherical in shape which badly distorts the images seen reflected in it. Check the image of Buzz Aldrin presented earlier in this collection (and reproduced below) and you will see at least 4 discrete shadows visible there, and they behave in a similar fashion to those reflected in Bean's visor. Also note the distortion of the LM's leg.

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Everyone knows that Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. Most people, however, cannot remember who the last man on the moon was - it was Gene Cernan. It appears that almost all recollection of Cernan has been erased from the collective... more