Finding Apollo Camera Images with the Web Map
The web map lets you find Apollo mapping & panoramic camera images for areas on the Moon just by pointing and clicking.

In essence, the process works as follows. Begin by zeroing in on a particular feature or area using the map. Then use filters to identify images available for that location. Finally, open the images and download them.

Each map element (Operators, Filters, etc.) has a specific function, described below.

At the end of this guide are some useful hints and suggestions.

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Quick Help
quickhelp
Clicking this icon pops up a highly condensed guide to finding Apollo images, aimed at first-time users.

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Operators
Operator buttons control what a mouse click on the map does.
zi
After you click the Zoom In operator button, a mouse click on the map recenters the map on that point and zooms in by a factor of about 2. You can zoom in repeatedly. Distortion will occur in some areas, because the map is a simple cylindrical projection.
zo
After you click the Zoom Out operator button, a mouse click on the map recenters the map on the point and zooms out by a factor of 2. You can repeat this until the whole map is visible.
recenter
After you click the Recenter operator button, a mouse click on the map recenters the map on that point without changing the magnification.
select
After you click the Select operator button, a mouse click anywhere on the map looks for a Apollo image covering that point. If any exist, a link for each image appears in both the Thumbnail frame and the Image List. Click either the thumbnail or the reference number to open a new browser window with details of that image and downloading options.
link
Clicking the Link to this Page operator button creates a link in your browser's address window that captures the current filters, map background, zoom-in state and chosen images. If you save the link as a Bookmark or a Favorite, you can return to that point at any time.
help
Clicking the Help operator button opens this user guide.

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Position
pos

The position display gives the lunar latitude and longitude of the mouse point in degrees and decimals of a degree. Latitude is given first and runs from 90° north to 90° south. Longitude increases eastward from 0° to 360°, measuring from the central meridian.

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Slider
slider
The slider control gives users an additional method of changing the map resolution by a factor of 2 or more. Clicking the + icon on the slider causes the map to zoom in by a factor of 2. Clicking the - icon on the slider causes the map to zoom out by a factor of 2. Clicking or dragging on the slider's red bar between the + and - icons, allows the user to jump instantly to any valid map resolution.

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Filters

You can search for Apollo images by choosing among two filters: Mission and Camera.
Mission

Camera images from Apollo missions 15, 16, and 17 can be displayed. The Apollo 16 mission is selected by default when the map first loads. Selecting a different mission set updates the map and shows only images from that mission choice.
Apollo 15-17
Choosing apollo 15-17 redraws the map to show the footprints of all mission images that meet the camera filter.

Choosing any single mission, apollo 15, 16 or 17 retrieves image footprints only from that mission that also match the camera filter.

Choosing none clears the map of all footprints.

Camera
Two camera systems photographed the lunar surface from orbit during the Apollo 15,16 and 17 missions. The Mapping Camera acquired images covering 165 kilometers on a side, with a horizontal resolution of 20 meters from a nominal spacecraft altitude of 110 kilometers. The Panoramic Camera acquired images in narrow strips 20 kilometers wide in the direction of spacecraft motion by 320 kilometers long across the spacecraft's ground track. Panoramic Camera images showed surface features as small as 1 to 2 meters. During these three Apollo missions, the Mapping Camera acquired 6871 usable images, while the Panoramic Camera acquired 4689 usable images.
Mapping and Metric Camera Choosing all shows the footprints of both the panoramic and mapping cameras for the missions specified in the Mission filter.
Panoramic Camera
Choosing panoramic displays the footprints of panoramic camera images for the mission set specified in the Mission filter. Panoramic camera footprints are displayed with a green tint.
Mapping Camera
Choosing mapping displays the footprints of mapping camera images for the mission set specified in the Mission filter. Mapping camera footprints are displayed with a red tint.
No Cameras
Choosing none clears the map of all camera footprints.

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Background
All background maps are simple cylindrical projections and have a maximum resolution of 64 pixels per degree, or roughly 0.47 kilometers (~0.3 miles) per pixel at the equator. The projection becomes increasingly distorted toward the poles.
bg
Choosing shaded relief displays a airbrush blended, grayscale topographic map created by the USGS, primarily from Lunar Orbiter photographs. Topography is displayed without the influence of albedo. At right is a shaded relief thumbnail of the crater Copernicus.
bg
bg
Choosing gray displays a grayscale mosaic map created from the red (750 nm) channel of the Clementine spacecraft's ultraviolet/visible camera. At right is a grayscale thumbnail of the crater Copernicus.
bg
bg
Choosing color displays a color mosaic map created from the red, green and blue channels of the Clementine spacecraft's ultraviolet/visible camera. At right is a color thumbnail of the crater Copernicus. The color background is the default choice when the map loads.
bg
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Choosing lidar displays Clementine LIDAR topography data overlaid onto USGS shaded relief maps. At right is a lidar thumbnail of the crater Copernicus. On the LIDAR map, blue and green tinted regions are at lower elevations than red and yellow areas.
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Map
What you see on the map reflects your current choices of filters and background.
map
In this example, the user chose images from the panoramic camera, shown here in green, on a grayscale shaded-relief background.
map
In this example, the user chose images from the mapping camera, represented here in red, on a Clementine lidar color map background.

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Image List
The Image List gives the reference numbers of any Apollo image footprints that cover the map spot the mouse clicked on (in Select Mode).
il
In the example at left, four images were found. Each image has a unique identifier. The identifier "AS15-M-0072" can be broken into its component parts. The "AS15", tells us the image is from the Apollo 15 mission. The "M", tells us this is a mapping camera image. A "P" in this position would indicate a panoramic camera image. The last 4 digits of the identifier, "0072", tells us this is the 72th image taken with this camera. Clicking any of the links would pop open a window providing detailed information about the image.

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Thumbnails
When you choose the Select operator (see above) and click on the map, the Thumbnails frame shows small versions of any Apollo images covering the spot the mouse clicked on.
tnails
In this example, three mapping camera images were found. Clicking any thumbnail pops open a window giving detailed information about the image and choices of image formats for downloading.
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Some hints and suggestions
Top position position operators operators slider slider map map quickHelp quickHelp filters filters background background imageList imageList imageThumbnails imageThumbnails