A photograph of the moon’s surface, taken from 80-miles high on an orbiting probe, has sold for $165,100, well over a $60,000 top estimate.
The 57-inch by 51.5-inch framed image in silver gelatin print is in fact a composite of several images taken in 1967 from the Lunar Orbiter series of flights used by NASA to prepare for the moon landings.
Sotheby’s auctioned the image in their Geek Week sale focussed on space travel.
There’s no human creator for the image, which Sotheby’s described as “one of only a few known copies”. It was taken by automatic systems on board the NASA Lunar Orbiter 5, the fifth and final craft of its type.
The Orbiters were initially focussed on spying out suitable sites for a crewed landing on the moon. The final two flights flew around the Moon at a higher altitude to carry out a general survey that culminated in 99% photo coverage of the Moon’s surface.
The images were captured on two cameras that recorded them on 70mm camera film while the rest of a ground-breaking system scanned images for radio transmission back to earth via networking stations.
The central focus of the picture is Aristarchus, a crater on the Moon’s surface that is visible from Earth with the naked eye. It is 10,000 feet deep and 23 miles across.
This picture passed through the ownership of George T. Keene, who was Kodak’s liaison to NASA for the Lunar Orbiter cameras.
Space travel is very collectible. Photography was widely used in the development of space programmes and some of the images captured of and from space craft are among the most iconic images ever made.
Some show the hero astronauts in action, like the 1969 picture by Buzz Aldrin that is the only picture taken with a still camera with a non-reflected image of Neil Armstrong on the Moon. That raised $70,200 at auction in 2020.
Others, like the famous Earthrise pictures, depicting Earth against the Moon, show the abstract beauty of our universe. These auction for thousands of dollars.
All space pictures are substantial technical achievements.
This image is now one of the most valuable such images at auction.
