Tarkus, does it not occur to you that the Sun moves across the Lunar sky? I believe that the solar panel "chased" the Sun into the Lunar afternoon and stopped there. Surveyor III could not be "awakened" after the 14 day cold-soak it received during the Lunar night, so the Solar panel remained where it was when the lander shut down.
That's exactly right -- you beat me to it. This is early local morning, so the sun is in the east. The photo is taken looking roughly northwest, so the solar panel is still pointed to the west where the sun set before the Surveyor died.
The Apollo 12 site is near the moon's equator in the moon's western hemisphere (west of the prime meridian that runs down the middle of the near side) so the earth is east of overhead. And because the earth remains almost stationary in the lunar sky, Surveyor's high-gain antenna still points in that direction -- the same direction as the high-gain S-band antenna in the background next to the Apollo 12 LM.
You know, I hadn't noticed that before. This is why I take the time to rebut hoaxers; I almost always learn or at least notice something new even though they never do.
If you look closely, both panels have identical lunar probe inclination in both photos ... too coincidental.
Moreover, if I wanted to make the most of a fixed solar panel, would place it parallel to the ground and not inclined as seen in the image.
First, it would not be hard to figure out what angles to place the high gain antenna and the solar panel. I suspect that the engineers did just that to bring the highest order of verisimilitude to the training. These missions were not cheap in either effort or expense, so making the training as realistic as possible would be a benefit.
As for the solar panel, the most efficient use would be as close to s right angle to the sun's rays as possible. The panel was motorized. Assuming that you don't live in the equatorial regions, look at any solar array - even the fixed ones are at an angle to optimize their exposure to the sun. Many change their Angie during the year to account for the change in the sun's declination as the seasons pass. And some arrays pivot on two axis during the day to take the best advantage of the light.
Before you say anything about this is the 2010's and they didn't have the computing power back then, this (although I couldn't draw you the circuit) can all be done with analog feedback circuits.
