Who took the photographs of the LM lifting off the Moon?
This is another example of lack of understanding of the events on the Moon. Apollos 15, 16, and 17 all had a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) which had a television camera mounted on the LRV. This camera could be remotely controlled from Earth, allowing mission control to film the astronauts at work. When each mission ended, the LRV was parked nearby to the LM, and was used to film the lift-off of the ascent stage. Because of the time delay involved in sending the camera operation signals to the Moon, it was very tricky to be able to film the lift-off of the ascent stage. The results were poor for Apollo 15 and 16. At the end of Apollo 17, Mission Control LRV camera operator Ed Fendell successfully captured the lift-off of the ascent stage as it raced into the lunar sky. Television broadcast of the discarded descent stage continued after lift-off, and Ed Fendell panned the LRV camera around the now unpopulated lunar surface for some time.
