Earth's Moon - Ranger 9

Final two images taken by Ranger 9 before impact

Earth's Moon
This image shows the last two pictures taken by Ranger 9 before impact onto the lunar surface. The images show the floor of Alphonsus crater at 12.84 S, 2.39 W. North is at 1:00 in both images. The top image was taken by camera P3 at a distance of 600 m just 0.25 seconds before impact. The frame is about 70 m across. The lower frame is from camera P1. It includes most of the area on the left of the P3 frame and was taken from 1.2 km 4.5 seconds prior to impact. The image is approximately 50 meters across. Part of the P3 frame is missing because Ranger 9 did not finish transmitting before impact. These were the last images from the Ranger program, which ended with this mission. (Ranger 9, P012)
Larger image:

High resolution tiff file (1.0 Mb)

Location & Time Information
Date/Time (UT): 1965-03-24 T14:08:19.5
Distance/Range (km): 1.
Central Latitude/Longitude (deg): -12.84, 002.39 W
Orbit(s): Impact - Hard Landing

Imaging Information
Area or Feature Type: crater
Instrument: Vidicon Camera P
Instrument Resolution (pixels): 300 x 300
Instrument Field of View (deg): 2.1 (P1, P2) 6.3 (P3, P4)
Filter: None
Illumination Incidence Angle (deg): 79.6
Phase Angle (deg): 54.6
Instrument Look Direction: N/A
Surface Emission Angle (deg): 29.4

Ordering Information
CD-ROM Volume: N/A
NASA Image ID number: Ranger 9 P012
Other Image ID number: N/A
NSSDC Data Set ID (Photo): 65-023A-01A
NSSDC Data Set ID (CD): N/A
Other ID: N/A

Updated 23 April 2003, DRW.