646 a
While Schmitt was concerned that his photographic coverage of the traverse was not good enough, Cernan claimed the record for the fastest drive on the Moon (17-18 km/h when they were coming down the Scarp).

“What really seemed fast was the fact that you kept bouncing off the surface,” recalled Schmitt. “You didn’t want to go any faster! The rover left the surface at every bump” (Chaikin, Voices, p. 78).

144:20:53 Schmitt: Yeah. (Pause) Wish they had never said anything about pictures, because I’ve tended to not take enough (in order) to do better.
144:21:04 Parker (Mission Control): Okay, but Jack, you’re doing quite well in the picture department...
144:21:06 Cernan: (Giving a range and bearing) 085/5.8
144:21:06 Parker: ...You’re not getting too far behind or ahead. Copy that (bearing and range), Gene.
144:21:11 Schmitt: No, but I mean I’m not sure I’m getting the coverage I should.
144:21:17 Parker: Okay. We’ll look at the frame counts when you get to Station 3.

646 b
A frame of a panoramic sequence taken at Lara Crater’s station 3 showing the interior of the smaller Ballet Crater.

“This station was located about 50 meters east of the rim of Lara Crater. Although time was limited, the crew took a traverse gravimeter measurement, gathered samples including a double-length core tube sample and a rake sample, and performed panoramic and 500-millimeter photography. This station is along the Lincoln-Lee Scarp, which is an
example of a mare wrinkle ridge. Wrinkle ridges are common in the lunar maria, but this is the only such ridge studied at close range during the Apollo program” (https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_17/surface_opp/).

144:52:53 Parker: Jack, if you haven’t started your pan, could we get an EMU (Extravehicular Mobil Unit) check from you?
144:53:00 Schmitt: Well, it’s about 50 percent. About 3.85.
144:53:04 Parker: Okay, copy that.
144:53:05 Schmitt: And no flags.
144:21:21 Schmitt: Oop, oop! (Pause) Oh, there’s another big crater with a pit in it.
144:21:31 Cernan: (Nonchalantly laying claim to a lunar speed record) What was it, 17-1/2 or 18 clicks we hit coming down the Scarp, Jack?

646 c
A frame from a panoramic sequence taken at Lara Crater’s station 3; footprints and the gnomon are visible in the foreground. Wessex Cleft and the Sculptured Hills form the skyline in the background, with Shorty’s Crater dark rim visible at the left foot of Wessex Cleft. In order to properly shoot this sequence, “when facing uphill Schmitt had to bend his knees and get on his toes to properly point the camera. When facing downhill, he only had to bend his knees” (from the ALSJ mission transcript at 144:53:05 GET).

646 d
The South Massif rises some 2,500 meters above the floor of the Valley of Taurus-Littrow.

“There wasn’t anything very exotic about taking pans. In training, we’d use real film and get it developed to see how we did. Basically, you wanted to get the horizon and it was pretty obvious what you had to do to get what you were looking for. It was just common sense. The only real variation was when I was facing upslope, sometimes I would take a picture of the foreground, lean back and get the horizon, then come down, turn a little, and take a picture straight in front of me, and then lean back to get the horizon again. That would give not only a horizontally overlapping pan but a vertically overlapping one as well for the local area that had a big upslope to it. I did that on my own because I figured that film was the least of our worries. And there were other times when I might take the camera off and sighted along the top surface to make sure I was getting things like the flag. And, of course, you had to use a lens-barrel sight when you used the 500,” said Eugene Cernan (from the ALSJ mission transcript at 144:53:05 GET).

145:01:05 Cernan: Okay, I’m picking up with (500 mm) mag - or (correcting himself) with frame 56 - and I’m going to try to get a little bit of where the Scarp overlaps the North Massif. I can’t see much of it...(Pause) All I could get was three frames of that. Now I’m picking up the South Massif.

646 e
A frame of a telephoto panoramic sequence taken from station 3 with the 500mm lens.
Wessex Cleft is the topographic feature dividing the North Massif from the Sculptured Hills.

145:02:34 Parker (Mission Control): You got a final frame count there, Gene?
145:02:43 Schmitt: (To Gene) Okay, I’m all set.
145:02:51 Cernan: Okay, Bob. When I finished the South Massif, I was on 94 and now I’m on 99. I took five more pictures back over to the northeast.

646 f
Station 3 was located at Lara Crater and station 4 at Shorty Crater.
The umbrella-like device is one of two antennas of the rover used to maintain communication with Earth and the Apollo 17 Command Module spacecraft.

145:11:06 Cernan: Okay, Bob (Overmeyer at Mission Control). We’re at 090/5.3 for a quick Rover sample of a very, very fragmental crater. The ejecta is about fifty percent small, angular fragments; much different than we have seen before in terms of the type of patterns.