Ranger VII photographed its way down to target in a lunar plain, named Mare Cognitum (the Known Sea) following the success of the mission, south of the Crater Copernicus, at latitude 10.35°S and longitude 20.58°W.
It sent more than 4,300 pictures from six cameras to waiting scientists, engineers and astronomers which “were delighted at the clarity of the images which confirmed that there were lunar areas topographically suitable for manned landing sites” (Cortright, p. 46).

This final series of 8 photographs were transmitted during the last 38 seconds before Ranger VII’s impact on the lunar surface, including the last one showing the moment of impact on Marge Cognitum.

The spacecraft was destroyed while transmitting, resulting in the receiver noise pattern (last photograph).

The pictures were taken by the F-A camera with a 25mm, f/1 lens from the altitudes of 55, 48.5, 41.1, 33.6, 26.2, 18.7, 11.2 and 3.7 miles. The last photograph was taken from an altitude of 3.7 miles some 2.3 seconds before impact. This image has a resolution of .5 meters, with the smallest craters shown approximately 30 feet in diameter and 10 feet deep. The width of the area shown decreases from about 29 miles (first photograph) to 1.84 miles (last photograph).

“The Ranger VII lunar lander was the first true success in the United States’ early quest to explore the Moon and heralded a new era of exploration that saw dramatically more mission successes than failures. [...]
The images, which showed the lunar surface in stunning detail, were the harbinger of future human exploration of the Moon” (https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/ranger-7/).