This photo from LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) of the Apollo 12 landing site is the most compelling evidence yet that we did land on the moon.
Intrepid landed in the Ocean of Storms at 3 degrees, 11 hours, 51 minutes south, and 23 degrees, 23 minutes, and 7.5 seconds west. Landing was about 120 feet northeast of Head Crater, and about 535 feet northwest from where Surveyor III stood in its crater. Apollo 12 touched down approximately 950 miles west of where Apollo 11 had landed.
Three hours after the landing and before the first extravehicular activity or, EVA, began. Richard Gordon, orbiting 69 miles up in the Yankee Clipper, was able to see both the Intrepid and Surveyor through the use of a 28-power sextant telescope. Conrad opened Intrepid's hatch at 115 hours, 10 minutes into the mission to begin the first lunar EVA for the Apollo 12 crew. In their first lunar exploration, Conrad spent three hours, 39 minutes outside Intrepid, and Bean logged two hours, 58 minutes on the lurain. During this EVA, Conrad collected lunar surface samples and deployed both the S-band communication antenna and the solar wind experiment. Bean was assigned to mount the TV camera on a tripod. In the process of doing so, it was inadvertently pointed into the sun and ceased to function. The ALSEP instrumentation and SNAP-27 RTG were deployed within an arc of 600 to 700 feet of the LM. The ALSEP functioned satisfactorily, except for two items in the package, and was expected to yield data for up to two years. Deployment of the ALSEP took about an hour to complete. Throughout this first EVA, Conrad and Bean also took photographs of the experiment equipment, the spacecraft, the lurain and of themselves. Before entering the Intrepid, Bean took a 16-inch-deep core sample of the lunar surface and was followed back into the LM by Conrad. The first EVA ended at 119 hours, five minutes into the mission. The crew then ate, recharged their backpacks, prepared for the second EVA the following day, and slept for about five hours.
On Nov. 20, an hour and a half earlier than planned, the crew began the second EVA. Conrad left the Intrepid some 131 hours, 28 minutes into the mission. The second EVA included the collection of 70 pounds of rock and dirt samples, the retrieval of 10 to 15 pounds of randomly selected selenological samples, and further probing of two areas to retrieve lunar material from depths up to 32 inches below the surface. The crew retrieved the TV camera and stored it in the LM for return to Earth. The most important part of this second EVA was a 5,200-foot traverse of the lurain, ranging up to 1,300 feet from Intrepid. Walking northwest to the site of the ALSEP deployment, Conrad and Bean then turned south to perform a selenological rock survey. They skirted the rim of Head Crater, walked further south past Bench Crater, west around Sharp Crater, and back east past Bench Crater again, south of Halo Crater. Eventually they turned northeast, entering the 650-foot-wide Surveyor Crater to retrieve parts of Surveyor III, which was perched some 150 feet from the edge at the southern quadrant.
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