Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Sorry for the late post.  I had a short hospital stay due to something that happened to me early Wednesday.

Ephemeris for Thursday, August 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 3 minutes, setting at 8:48, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:46. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 9:17 this evening.

Apollo 11 wasn’t the only moon landing mission in 1969. Four months after Apollo 11 took off Apollo 12 lifted off into ominous skies on November 14th. The rocket was struck by lightning shortly after takeoff, and popped the circuit breakers in the command module, but didn’t affect the computers controlling the Saturn V. The astronauts were able to reset everything in time for TLI, Trans Lunar Injection. They landed as intended some 600 feet from the Surveyor 3 lander spacecraft sent to the Moon 2 and a half years earlier. They cut off the spacecraft camera to return to the Earth. The improved color TV camera they brought with them was damaged when it was inadvertently pointed to the Sun while setting it up.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The crew of Apollo 12 left to right: Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean. Credit: NASA.

Pete Conrad visiting Surveyor 3. Credit NASA/Alan Bean.