Incorrect.

Here are the phases of the Moon for April 1970.



As you can see, Fra Mauro would have been experiencing sunrise on April 15th, the day for the landing, if the accident hadn't happened. The 15th was also the date Apollo 13 experienced pericynthion.

Please check your facts before posting (or C&Ping) more claims.

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Just a comment in addition to Jason Thompson & Mak's above - even if these numbers were correct (they aren't) and that if the first time Fra Mauro came into sunlight, Apollo 13 was 19,000 miles away - the moon would stilll be subtending nearly 7 degrees at that distance (i.e. the moon would have appeared roughly 13 times bigger than it does from the surface of the Earth). The view would still have been beautiful and the Fra Mauro region would have been easily identifiable, especially for people that had been specifically trained to land there and as such who would have been intimately familiar with the area!


(Edited to note that Jason Thompson had addressed this already. Sorry folks - move on, nothing more to see here.)

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I would say that you should first check yours.. (in more detail)

Pericynthion plus 2-hour manuever happened according to NASA official timeline at g.e.t. 79:27:39 which is 02:40 GMT 15/4/1970

Fra Mauro at that time was well covered by shadow.


(in the picture: Simulation with Virtual Moon Atlas)

The landing site of Apollo13 was located at 17.550 degrees west longitude and 3.617 degrees south latitude in the highlands north-north-west of Fra Mauro and was covered by sunlight not before 9:30 GMT 15/4/1970. Apollo13 was thousand miles away from the moon at that time and was ready for midcourse corrections. How could Haise see the landing site from that distance? (Note also that Fra Mauro is a small area on the moon no bigger than 58 miles)

How far was the spacecraft from the Moon? About 19,000 miles, as already mentioned? Making the Moon appear much larger than it does from here, thus making the landing site, the point that have trained to spot and are hence very familiar with, quite easily visible.

You are also assuming that everything in the shaded part of the Moon is utterly black and invisible, which is not necessarily the case thanks to Earthshine. Fra Mauro could still be within the dark area and be visible.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

Sorry, pal, but that's not right.

Fra Mauro is just a little bit past where the terminator is at first quarter. During the 15th of April, 1970, the Moon was past first quarter and into its gibbous phase as it approached full Moon. And the Fra Mauro area was not "well-covered", instead first being struck by sunlight on its higher regions and then completely engulfed by light from the Sun.

Plus one must also take into account the Earthshine illumination that Jason Thompson noted. Heck, while looking at a two day old Moon in clear, dark skies, I can make out all the various maria. And that's from ~225,000 miles away.

BTW, how does this jibe with your claim Fra Mauro was experiencing sunrise as Apollo 13 rounded the Moon, and the terminator had moved past it by the time Odyssey and Aquarius left the lunar neighborhood.

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Has anyone actually checked whether the statement about seeing Fra Mauro is in the actual A13 transcripts, or was reported in Lovell's book?

I know it was made in the movie, but that's not exactly a reliable primary source. It wouldn't be the first time than an HB used "evidence" from Apollo 13 in a hoax argument.

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"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

That's a good point, Donnie. I had a quick flick through the book and couldn't find the reference, but not knowing exactly when the statement was supposedly made I can't be sure I was even searching the right part.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

So you say that high-resolution lunar map and lunar phases simulation program "Virtual Moon Atlas" is wrong? Have you clicked in my attached picture?
And may I ask what are your sources for your claim?
I urge you to download Free Virtual Moon Atlas and try it for yourself. You will findout that A13 landind site was first hit by sunlight (pass the terminator) after 9:30 GMT. Pericynthion+2hours manuever happened 7 hours earlier. (Pericynthion 9 hours earlier)

About Earthshine: Its a phenomenon mostly visible when the moon is in early crescent phase. On 15th April the moon was 2/3rds.

ps to all: relax, I am not a Hoax Biliever. I am just checking some of their theories..

Check that: only visible from here during crescent phase. When you're up close and personal with the Moon it's likely to be a different story.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

By my calculation that puts Fra Mauro only about 46 miles from the terminator at the time of the PC+2 burn. How wide is Fra Mauro?

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

You know, this is just flat-out silly. Are you seriously saying that NASA announced where Apollo 13 would land, but were too stupid to realize that it would be in darkness at the time they were suppose to land??

Not only is that hogwash, it makes zero sense.

RAF. Agreed. Goes way beyond silly.

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A second rate theory explains after the fact
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That's not the claim here. Because of the explosion, A13 reached and left the moon before it was originally scheduled to land. Therefore the landing site may well have still been in darkness or very close to the terminator at the time A13 did its free-return.

The question now is, did anyone actually mention seeing Fra Mauro during the actual flyby, or was that only a throw-away line in the movie Apollo 13? And if the landing site was in fact mentioned during the actual mission, was it or was it not still in darkness, or could it have been recognized by illumination of peaks or by Earthshine?

I seem to recall that we've had this discussion before, but I've had no luck finding it. My vague recollection is that the mention of Fra Mauro occurred in the movie only, not in the actual mission.

ETA: Found it! The 88-hour anomaly claim is from our old pal Cosmic Dave.

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"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

Right, the relevant passage from the book by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger:

So, according to the book, the observation of Fra Maro took place at several thousand miles out, and several hours after the free return shot round the Moon. According to the information given the crew spent two hours after the PC+2 burn executing the PTC manoeuvre and powering down the LM, then Haise slept for three hours, and he radioed his observation of Fra Mauro two hours into Lovell and Swigert's rest period. Add that all up and we have Haise seeing Fra Mauro some seven hours or so after the PC+2 burn, exactly the time Freethinker says it would be emerging from the shadows of the terminator. This is also about nine hours after pericynthion, just when Dark Moon says the same event should happen.

At 16,214 miles a little trigonometry shows that the Moon as seen from the spacecraft subtends an angle of 7.6 degrees, over 15 times larger than it appears from here. Further, the trigonometry also reveals that the Fra Mauro crater, which is 50 miles across, subtends an angle of 10.6 arcminutes, easily naked eye visible. For comparison, the 376-mile wide Mare Crisium, which is visble from Earth with the naked eye, only subtends between 5.1 and 5.7 arcminutes (due to foreshortening, that would be its length as seen from here). It is therefore no great stretch to think that Fred Haise could have seen the Fra Mauro region with the unaided eye at the time he radioed the observation to Earth.

The only reason I can see that this has even been brought up as an issue by CTs is that in the film Apollo 13 they transplanted this observation of the landing site to the time when the crew was right near the Moon. However, that whole sequence is nothing but dramatic license, since they observe Mare Tranquilitatis, Fra Mauro and the Tsiolkovsky crater in the space of a few seconds, and all after LOS, which is not physically possible.

Bennett and Percy, who made the original claim about the suspect timing (in fact the illustration on the cover of their book suggests it was the inspiration for the title), apparently don't believe artistic licence is allowed in a film and want to claim NASA's endorsement of the film as a claim of total historical accuracy. That is nothing short of laziness when the primary source material is available for inspection. Indeed, if you go back to the primary sources, you find that the events happened at just the right times.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.