Moon landing: How did they set up the camera?

Factual Questions
1

I was in utero at the time of the first moon landing, so all I know is Armstrong’s feet coming down the steps, his garbled (in more ways than one) bon mot, and Walter Klondike wiping his eyes. I’d probably known this if I’d seen the entire broadcast, but where was the camera set up for that first shot? Was it on some kind of extrusion pole that was aligned from inside the capsule? Or did Armstrong duck out, set it on the ground, then come back in for the official one small step?

Need to know so I can counter a cow-orker who believes Fox rather than NASA.

2

I was in utero too (I was born 8 days before Apollo 13 launched). Cronkite, not Klondike. The camera was on a boom that was extended from the LM for the express purpose of catching the first steps on the moon.

3

It was on an arm that folded out from the side of the lunar module. It didn’t need to be aligned from inside the LM. They knew where Armstrong was going to take his first ste: at the bottom of the ladder, which was attached to one of the landing legs.

The arm was released be a switch that Armstrong pulled at on the platform at the top of the ladder. I recall seeing a picture somewhere showing how the arm worked, but I can’t for the life of me recall where…

Eric

4

They had a shot in From the Earth to the Moon that shows the camera being deployed.

5

Didn’t you know? We never landed on the moon!
(before the flame war begins, please click on the URL and know I’m not serious.)

6

It’s a guy named Fergle McManus. He’s a crack photographer.

You know those pictures of the first guys to climb Mt Everest, taken from above them looking down? That was Fergle, too.

Or whenever some explorer found a hitherto unknown south seas island, there’s always a picture of them as the first human to step foot on the island, taken from the island? Fergle again.

Almost any time there’s a famous “first”, it’s almost always Fergle, who got there ahead of the famous first so he could snap the photo. One of the unsung heroes of photography.

7

The camera was given about a paragraph’s worth of explanation in Andrew Chaikin’s A Man on the Moon (which From the Earth to the Moon was based on).

Excellent book, and it tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the Apollo missions.

I can dig up and quote the paragraph about the camera tonight, if you desire.

8

Hmmm, so how did they get that shot? Shoot, maybe it’s a conspiracy after all!

9

Here’s the quote, which doesn’t describe it as well as I thought it would (I must’ve been thinking of FtEttM, or perhaps For All Mankind)

10

Thank you, Montfort!

MrDeath, I know his name was Cronkite. My mom thought it was funny to call him Klondike.