[Lunar Orbiter V]

Acquired by the present owner from an agent of George T. Keene, Kodak’s technology liaison to NASA for the Lunar Orbiter camera system.

Apollo’s Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, July 3-September 22, 2019; Lunar Landscapes: Unmanned Space Photography, Menil Collection, Houston, TX, March 10-June 4, 2000 (exhibition label on verso). 

ONE OF ONLY A FEW KNOWN COPIES of this large-scale mosaic of the complex impact crater Aristarchus, taken using a 24-inch focal length lens from an altitude of 80 miles. Aristarchus is considered the brightest of the large formations on the lunar surface, and is visible to the naked eye, being 23 miles in diameter, and 10,000 feet deep. Probably formed about 175 million years ago, it is one of the most geologically interesting regions of the moon, and there have even been periodic sightings of reddish gas emissions from the crater rim. 

NASA's Lunar Orbiter program sent a series of 5 robotic probes over the period of a year to photograph the lunar surface in order to help select Apollo and Surveyor landing sites, conduct scientific measurements, as well as to accurately map the Moon. The first three probes were dedicated to photographing 20 potential crewed landing sites and the fourth and fifth missions were high altitude orbits that contributed to capturing images of 99% of the lunar surface. 

The Lunar Orbiter spacecraft were each equipped with two cameras that simultaneously captured both lower resolution with an 80mm (wide angle) lens and high resolution with a 610mm (telephoto) lens, but on the same line of sight and recorded to a common supply of 70mm film. The cameras were part of a Kodak photographic system that also included a film processor and an analog scanner so the images could be radio transmitted to Earth. The data was gathered by three NASA Deep Space Network receiving stations and sent to the Army Map Service and NASA Langley. The video signal was converted into variations of light on a cathode ray tube, and the image produced was captured on positive film by a 35 mm camera. Each film positive is known as a framelet, and the Orbiter's original photograph is recreated by placing the framelets side by side.