Eugene Cernan

360° panoramic view of Harrison Schmitt and the Lunar Rover at Shorty Crater, station 4

Apollo 17, December 7-19, 1972, EVA 2, 145:47:43 GET

Unique hand mosaic of ten vintage chromogenic prints on fiber-based Kodak paper, with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA AS17-137-20994 to AS17-137-21025” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin, overall size 28 x 161cm
28 x 161cm

Light, plate 82; Constantine, pp. 130-131.

Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, La Lune: Du Voyage Réel aux Voyages Imaginaires, April-July 2019.

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Lot Essay

Eugene Cernan took this fabulous panorama from the east rim of Shorty Crater before he and Schmitt left for their next geology stop.

Harrison Schmitt (seen twice) is at the Rover, 40 m away.

“The area where the crew discovered and sampled a deposit of orange soil, rich in pyroclastic material, is between the Rover and the large boulder just beyond it” (ALSJ).

This station 4 stop was made to investigate the possibility that the 110 m wide and 14 m deep crater was actually a volcanic structure but it is actually an impact crater and the orange soil is an older volcanic deposit.

From left to right, West and Old Family Mountain, the North Massif, Wessex Cleft, the Sculptured Hills, the East Massif, the South Massif and West Family Mountain (seen twice) form the skyline in the background. The lack of atmospheric haze on the Moon makes distances difficult to judge: West Family Mountain lies about 16km away; by contrast the rise of Old Family Mountain to its right is only about 6 km away. Behind Shorty Crater, the Lincoln Scarp crosses both the valley floor and the surrounding highland material in North Massif.

145:47:31 Cernan: Okay, Bob, I’m going several meters around to the east and (slightly) towards the south to get this pan.
145:47:38 Parker (Mission Control): Copy that.
145:47:43 Cernan: I’m going upslope. I’m circum...I’m on the circum...Oh, you know, on the rim. And I’m up. Oh, that ought to be a beautiful shot, if I could see what my settings are.

“A geologist’s paradise, if I ever saw one...”
Harrison Schmitt (National Geographic, September 1973, p. 301)