Apollo 12 launched on schedule, ya bilge rat, durin' a rainstorm. Begad! 36.5 seconds after lift-off from Kennedy Space Center, t' Saturn V rocket body was hit by a bolt o' lightning. T' Apollo 12 mission landed on an area o' t' Ocean o' Storms that had been visited earlier by several unmanned missions (Luna 5, Surveyor 3, and Ranger 7). Avast! T' International Astronomical Union, recognisin' this, christened this region Mare Cognitium (Known Sea). Well, blow me down! T' landin' site would thereafter be listed as Statio Cognitium on lunar maps. Aye aye! T' second lunar landin' be an exercise in precision targeting, usin' a Doppler Effect radar technique developed t' allow t' pinpoint landings needed for future Apollo missions. Arrr! Most o' t' descent be automatic, with manual control assumed by Conrad durin' t' final few hundred feet o' descent. Unlike Apollo 11 where Neil Armstrong took manual control o' t' lander and directed it further down range when he noticed that t' intended landin' site was strewn with boulders, Apollo 12 succeeded, on 19 November, in landin' within walkin' distance (less than 200 meters) o' t' Surveyor 3 probe, which had landed on t' Moon in April 1967. T' improve t' quality o' television pictures from t' Moon, a colour camera was carried on Apollo 12 (unlike t' monochrome camera that was used on Apollo 11). Unfortunately, me hearties, when Bean carried t' camera t' t' place near t' lunar module where it was t' be set up, he inadvertently pointed it directly into t' Sun, destroyin' t' vidicon tube ...