683 a
The photograph was taken looking southwest from the LM Challenger during docking with the
CSM America over the Moon with the 60mm lens toward the 59-km wide and 3.9 km deep
Crater Eratosthenes, named after ancient Greek astronomer Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who estimated the circumference of the Earth, and the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
Latitude / Longitude: 10° N / 10° W.

683 b
A spectacular low-Sun angle (sun elevation 9°) oblique photograph (from magazine 145/D) of
the 60-km Eratosthenes Crater with the 93-km Copernicus Crater on the horizon (latitude / longitude: 09.5° N / 13.6° W) taken looking south west from the LM Challenger with the 60 mm lens at an altitude of 112 km above the surface during docking with the Command Spaceship America.

This statement from President Nixon was read up by Gordon Fullerton (Mission Control) right after Challenger docked safely with America.
It reads, “As Challenger leaves the surface of the Moon, we are conscious not of what we leave behind, but of what lies before us. The dreams that draw humanity forward seem always to be redeemed, if we believe in them strongly enough and pursue them with diligence and courage. Once we stood mystified by the stars; today we reach up to them. We do this not only because it is man’s destiny to dream the impossible, to dare the impossible, and to do the impossible, but also because, in space, as on Earth, there are new answers and new opportunities for the improvement of, and the enlargement of, human existence.
This may be the last time in this century that men will walk on the Moon, but space exploration will continue, the benefits of space exploration will continue, and there will be new dreams to pursue, based on what we learned. So let us not mistake the significance or miss the majesty of what we have witnessed. Few events have ever marked so clearly the passage of history from one epoch to another. If we understand this about the last flight of Apollo, then truly we have touched a ‘many splendored thing’. To Gene Cernan, Jack Schmitt, and Ron Evans, we say God speed you safely back to this good Earth.”

683 c
This last photograph of an Apollo spacecraft in lunar orbit was taken with the 80mm lens after
transfer of the crew in the Command Module Endeavour during the previous orbit.

“By now, Challenger had almost completed its mission. The rocks and the helmets and gloves were all safely aboard America and, indeed, the Command Module was so full of rocks and astronauts that the only way they were going to get a little elbow room was to get rid of a jettison bag that Ron had been filling for the last three days. Consequently, just before they closed the LM hatch for the last time, the astronauts tossed the bulging jett bag into the now empty cabin of the LM. Challenger had one last mission to accomplish. She was headed back down to the Moon for a planned impact on the eastern flank of the South Massif, a final sacrifice to the gods of seismology; and, as Challenger made her last trip down to the lunar surface. She also had the unglamorous - but necessary - job of carrying the trash” (from the ALSJ summary).

193:58:51 Public Affairs: Jettison on time.
193:58:51 Evans: Yes, everything else’s right there. Beautiful. I hope this thing’s working.
193:58:59 Evans: You know, Houston, this is America. I guess in the terms of some of the
Grumman people (constructor of the LM) down in Florida, the LM is a “wop-off”.
193:59:17 Mission Control: Okay. We copy that.
193:59:24 Cernan: And, Houston, I think the last few days have proved that they really did save the best until last.

683 d
The Taurus-Littrow landing site is located in the mountainous highlands at the eastern rim of the Serenitatis Basin, about 750 kilometers east of the the Apollo 15 landing site and about the same distance north of the Apollo 11 site (latitude / longitude: 20.2° N / 31.1° E).

This photograph from magazine 139/K was taken with the 60mm lens at an altitude of 112 km, looking north west. The landing site (center of image) is in a dark deposit between massifs of the southwestern Taurus Mountains to the left (south) of the 29-km crater Littrow. The 30-km Crater Vitrivius is in the left foreground.

From the mission transcript during orbit 62 as the landing site came in view:

209:44:55 Evans: The landing site really shows up - even from this distance right now. We’re right over Proculus, and looking off across down through the hills there, you have that definite dark - and now the albedo or the colored texture of the thing to me is turning more of a gray than a tangray. In the early parts of it, I thought it was a dark grayish tan, I guess, or something like that. Now it looks to me like it’s more tan - I mean more gray, I’m sorry, more gray.

683 e
These wide-angle photographs from magazine 139/K were taken with the 60mm lens and the
transparent glass reseau plate engraved with grid markings of the lunar surface Hasselblad camera; the first during revolution 66 from an altitude of 112km over the border between the Foaming Sea (left) and the Sea of Fertility (right) on the lunar nearside (latitude / longitude: 2.8° N / 63.8°E); the second during a sleep period (revolution 68) from an altitude of 112km over Smyth’s Sea on the lunar nearside (latitude / longitude: 1.9° S / 84.8° E).