have you heard the cool story about the apollo 12 tv camera? on earth, when A12 commander pete conrad and LM pilot alan bean were practicing their procedures, they used a block of wood as a stand-in for the camera. up on the bright, sparkling, atmosphere-less moon, bean had the job of setting up the camera. after taking the lens cap off, he inadvertently pointed the camera in the direction of the sun for a mere moment. unfortunately, that moment was enough to pretty much fry the innards of the lens, resulting in the camera being almost entirely useless. at the time, however, neither the crew nor the ground staff knew what the problem was. so the funny part was when bean, trying to get the damn camera to work, hit it with his geology hammer. he still has the hammer and the camera is still on the moon. :)
