American Historical Ephemera and Photography Featuring the Civil War and American Militaria Collection of Bruce B. Hermann

Large photographic print, 35 1/2 x 90 1/2 in. Lunar Orbiter images I-102H-1 & 2, some minor creasing and discoloration, matted and framed (unexamined out of frame). Provenance: Sold Sotheby's New York, 29 November 2018, sale N09897, lot 20.

RARE OVERSIZED RENDERING OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE EARTH FROM DEEP SPACE

Between August 1966 and August 1967, NASA sent 5 Lunar Orbiters to take images of the moon, each equipped with a dual-lens Kodak camera, including one wide-angle 80 mm lens, and one telephoto 610 mm lens. Each orbiter also included a film processing unit, a readout scanner, and a film-handling apparatus; exposures were made on a roll of 70mm film.  

Orbiters I, II, and III were sent to image potential moon landing sites.  Orbiter I captured this first view of the Earth as seen from the Moon on 23 August 1966. The lines which cross the image, characteristic of all Lunar Orbiter images, are a product of the complicated process used to create the images.  

This first image of the Earth from space forever changed the way we view our home planet. NASA photographic technician Jay Friedlander recalled: "You're looking at your home from this really foreign kind of desolate landscape...It's the first time you're actually looking at Earth as a different kind of place...We're on this little Earth. We're only part of some grand solar system in some big galaxy and universe. That's why this picture is important, because this was the first time that anyone on Earth got this sense."