NASA: AS11-37-5437
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 Note 3: There are no
stars visible in the sky.
The conspiracist claims this is a photo of the lunar surface taken
from the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle. That's correct, however
Eagle was not sitting on the lunar surface at the time, but was
in fact several thousand feet above it. The crater at lower right is
Maskelyne, a well known waypoint on Eagle's descent trajectory.
The dark area marked by Note 3 is not the blackness of space, but
the part of the lunar surface that was in shadow. The demarcation
under Note 3 running the entire width of the photo is in fact the
moon's terminator, or the line between the lighted and shaded portion
of the lunar surface. The flight plan called for Eagle to land
near the terminator so that the lunar surface at the landing site
would not be as intensely heated in the sun, and to provide deep
shadows to aid in the landing. The actual landing site is near the
center of the photograph.
See here for a general discussion of the
visibility of stars in space.
Note E: An unknown
object is casting a shadow on the lunar surface.
The object is hardly unknown; it's Eagle's front left RSC
thruster (steering jet). And it's not casting a shadow, it's a
silhouette. The RCS quad lies just outside the commander's window and
appears in many photos taken from that window.
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