FACT ONE
The Astronauts onboard Apollo 12 were Charles Conrad (mission commander), Richard F. Gordon (Command Module pilot) and Alan L. Bean (Lunar Module pilot). Once reaching lunar orbit, Conrad and Bean would enter the Lunar Module and separate from the Command Module that had got them there. They would drop to the surface of the Moon, hopefully to go for a stroll on it when landing, while Gordon in the Command Module would circle the Moon a number of times, waiting for the return of his companions to accompany him home.

FACT TWO
Only 36.5 seconds after lift-off, Apollo 12 was struck by lightning. Although this wouldn't harm the spacecraft, it did cause problems with the craft's onboard computers and sent back garbled information about its telemetry to mission control. Fortunately the astronauts were able to get the computer back online and transmitting properly, preventing the mission from having to be aborted.

FACT THREE
For all Apollo missions, the Command Module and Lunar Module are given callsigns. In the case of Apollo 12, the Command Module was called Yankee Clipper and the Lunar Module was called Intrepid.

FACT FOUR
Apollo 12's Lunar Module landed on the Moon's surface on November 19th 1969 at 06:54:35 UTC (this would be 1.54am at its launch site in Florida). This means it took Apollo 12 exactly 110 hours, 32 minutes at 35 seconds to get from Earth to the Moon.

FACT FIVE
Just like a many people do when they go on a trip somewhere, the astronauts on Apollo 12 took a video camera with them to film their adventure. Whereas Apollo 11 was filmed in black and white, and was a bit grainy and blurry, the Apollo 12 astronauts had a colour camera with them. Unfortunately, when Alan Bean was setting up the camera shortly after landing, he accidentally pointed it at the Sun. This destroyed the video camera tube, therefore preventing the rest of the mission on the Moon from being filmed. 

FACT SIX
The landing site for Apollo 12 was in an area in the Ocean of Storms known as Statio Cognitium, which means Known Sea. The reason it was called Known Sea was that the area had been visited before by unmanned probes, most notably Surveyor 3 which landed there in 1967. The landing site wasn't given an official name, although it was given the nickname Pete's Parking Lot by Pete Conrad. Whereas Apollo 11 missed its target landing site by some distance (owing to it being rockier than imagined), Apollo 12 landing only 580 feet short of its target, close enough for the astronauts to walk to Surveyor 3 which was only 600 feet away.

FACT SEVEN
The were three moonwalks, or Extra Vehicular Activities, during the Apollo 12 mission. The first lasted for three hours, fifty-six minutes, the second for three hours and forty-nine minutes, and the final for seven hours and forty-five minutes. The total length of time spent on the Moon's surface, either walking around it or in the Lunar Module, was thirty-one hours and thirty-one minutes.

FACT EIGHT
Alan Bean smuggled  a camera timer onboard that was intended to be set to take a picture of him and Pete Conrad standing by Surveyor 3. Unfortunately, he was unable to find the timer when on the Moon so couldn't take the picture. 

FACT NINE
The Apollo 12 Command Module returned to Earth on November 24th 1969 at 20:58:24 UTC (3.58pm at launch site). On landing, Alan Bean was knocked unconscious by a camera falling onto his head.

FACT TEN
The Apollo 12 Lunar Module was detached from the Command Module on its return to Earth. The Command Module, Yankee Clipper, is on display at the Virginia Air and Space Museum in Hampton, Virginia.