Michael Collins

Earthrise

Apollo 11, July 16-24, 1969, orbit 15

Unreleased photograph, vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “NASA AS11-41-6032” (NASA MSC) in black in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, La Lune: Du Voyage Réel aux Voyages Imaginaires, April-July 2019; exhibition catalogue, p. 23, no. 11, illustrated.

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Lot Essay

Collins captured this magnificent photograph of Earthrise (with the B&W magazine P/41 and the 80mm lens) looking west over the western edge of Smyth’s Sea and the 45-km Crater Schubert from the orbiting CM Columbia while the LM Eagle was resting on the lunar surface just after its successful landing.
Columbia was on his 15th orbit at an altitude of about 110 km.

The view of Earthrise was a great highlight of the mission, which the astronauts photographed with eagerness.

For Richard Underwood, NASA chief of photography, Apollo 11 brought back “the best Earth rises and sets, by far”.

From the mission transcript during the first revolution of Apollo 11 around the Moon as the crew was orbiting over the lunar farside and expecting their first Earthrise:

076:01:41 Collins: We want the big camera, huh? Big lens or small one?
076:01:46 Armstrong: Oh, it doesn’t really matter.
076:01:48 Aldrin: 80 millimeter will probably be as good for...
076:01:50 Collins: For the Earth coming up?
076:01:51 Armstrong: No, for the Earth...
076:01:52 Aldrin: No, for the Earth coming up, we want 250. Might take some...
076:01:54 Armstrong: ...not sure we can get the Earth coming up...
076:01:55 Aldrin: ...might take some - some luck to get that, but…[...]
076:14:57 Collins: Okay, we shouldn’t take any more pictures on this roll until Earth comes, I don’t think. This is...
076:15:01 Armstrong: About out?
076:15:02 Collins: ...just about out and it’s on our last color roll, so we’ll switch to black and white as soon as we get to Earth.
076:15:07 Armstrong: We might make it in time.
076:15:09 Collins: Yes.
076:15:13 Aldrin: There it is, it’s coming up!
076:15:15 Collins: What?
076:15:16 Aldrin: The Earth. See it?
076:15:17 Collins: Yes. Beautiful.
076:15:21 Aldrin: It’s halfway up.
076:15:23 Armstrong: We ought to have AOS (Acquisition Of Signal) now.