[Apollo 8] HUMANITY'S FIRST ORBIT OF THE MOON: stunning view of Goclenius Crater William Anders...

[Apollo 8] HUMANITY'S FIRST ORBIT OF THE MOON: stunning view of Goclenius Crater William Anders [Apollo 8], 21-27 December 1968 Printed 1968. Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image AS8-13-2225]. Numbered 'AS8-13-2225' in black in the lower margin, with NASA caption on the reverse (issued by NASA Space Science Data Centre, NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, Greenbelt, Maryland). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context A striking frame from the first photographic sequence captured by William Anders during Apollo 8's historic first orbit around the Moon, as the crew encountered the eerie, otherworldly lunar landscape. Taken with the 250mm telephoto lens and B&W magazine 13/E, this oblique view looks southeast into the Sea of Fertility, revealing remarkable lunar features in unprecedented detail. The 70-km-wide Crater Goclenius (latitude/longitude: 10.0°S, 45.0°E) lies on the southern edge of the Sea of Fertility, its floor etched with numerous rilles. One prominent rille extends across the entire crater floor, over the central peak, and across the rim into the smooth mare. In the background, the two large craters with smooth floors are Colombo A (41 km, left) and Magelhaens, while Magelhaens A, with its irregular floor, spans approximately 35 km (20 statute miles) in diameter. Footnotes: From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken: 069:56:33 Anders: Now we're coming upon the craters Colombo and Gutenberg. Very good detail visible. We can see the long parallel faults or grabens. [Pause.] And they run through the mare material right into the highland material. Literature National Geographic, May 1969, pp. 620-621 LIFE, 10 January 1969, p. 22 The View from Space: American Astronaut Photography, 1962–1972, Schick and Van Haaften, p. 99 For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing