Apollo 11 plaque photos

[Peter B]

Hi everyone

I've just come across a video pointing out a little photographic anomaly I hadn't seen before, so I was hoping for some help explaining it.

The video is at

It's in Italian but with English subtitles which I assume are accurate.

Anyway, it's to do with the three A11 plaque photos: AS11-40-5897 to 5899. Photos 97 and 98 show an object to the left of the plaque which looks like a flat rectangular prism (sort of the shape of a mobile phone) which is close to white.  In photo 99 the object is missing even though the photo is taken in virtually the same direction.

The only thing I can think of is that it's the end of a swinging cable, and the first two photos captured it at the end of its swing, while the third photo was taken when it had swung out of sight. There are cables hanging in what might be the right place in 5860...?

Does anyone know what this might be?

Thank you!

[TimberWolfAu]

The pictures were taken by Buzz, Armstrong was at the MESA bay at the time IIRC (he's there in the previous photos), so the idea of something swinging is a possibility. I'd take issue with it being in the same spot in two photos though. There is a change in the angle for the third shot, and we know Buzz has changed the settings, so I'd see a possibility of a strap hanging down in the first two pictures which Armstrong has moved while Buzz was making the adjustments to the camera.

[onebigmonkey]

Oh it's always nice when something new comes up

I've superimposed the two images in Photoshop, and you can see the slight change in perspective between the ones where it's present and the one where it isn't:



You can see the engine bell in the background, so it must be between the ladder leg and the bell. I think this is a likely candidate:



I think this shows roughly when the photo was being taken, and you can see Neil is at the LM  - it'roughly at the time the only clear photo of him on the surface was taken, and he is in shot (at least partially) in other images around the time the plaque photos were taken, so it could easily be that he is moving something around:



At one point in the sequence (01:13:55 in here

you see Neil discard something from where he's working and it ends up on the floor.

The object I've picked out is missing from an earlier photo



and doesn't appear to be hanging there in a later photo:



So it appears while Neil is doing whatever he's doing, discarding something, then isn't there. What actually is it? No idea!

[onebigmonkey]

aaand here it is in close-up - it does appear earlier than I thought!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21880590980/in/album-72157657350941603/



The material Neil discards may be packing mesh from the MESA, not this object.

Still not entirely sure what it is though, part of the LEC?

[onebigmonkey]

This photo from here

https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-lec.html



Shows the bag that the LEC straps were contained in, and that matches very well with the image above.

[onebigmonkey]

And here are some more images in which it appears:

I think this is it slightly higher than in the other photos

AS11-40-5860


AS11-40-5864


AS11-40-5869


AS11-40-5892

[Peter B]

Thank you! Awesome work!