Details
262 a
Eugene Cernan, Thomas Stafford, or John Young

The exterior of the spacecraft heading to the Moon

Apollo 10, May 18-26, 1969, 053:49:00 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso (NASA / North American Rockwell) [NASA AS10- 34-5056]

262 b
Eugene Cernan, Thomas Stafford, or John Young

The lunar farside seen from the spacecraft rounding the Moon for the first time

Apollo 10, May 18-26, 1969, orbit 1

Four unreleased photographs, vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “NASA AS10-33-4857, AS10- 33-4867, AS10-33-4871, AS10-33-4873” (NASA MSC) in black in top margin

262 c
Eugene Cernan, Thomas Stafford, or John Young

Moonscapes seen from the spacecraft approaching the Moon’s nearside for the first time

Apollo 10, May 18-26, 1969, orbit 1, 076:22:50 GET

Two unreleased photographs, vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “NASA AS10-33-4885, AS10- 33-4889” (NASA MSC) in black in top margin

262 d
Eugene Cernan, Thomas Stafford, or John Young

Twin craters Messier and Messier A in the Sea of Fertility

Apollo 10, May 18-26, 1969, orbit 1, 076:43:48 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “NASA AS10-33-4906” (NASA MSC) in black in top margin

262 e
Eugene Cernan, Thomas Stafford, or John Young

Crater Gutenberg on the west rim of the Sea of Fertility

Apollo 10, May 18-26, 1969, orbit 1

Unreleased photograph, vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “NASA AS10-33-4908” (NASA MSC) in black in top margin

262 f
Eugene Cernan, Thomas Stafford, or John Young

Chain craters on the floor of the farside Crater Mendeleev

Apollo 10, May 18-26, 1969, orbit 2, 078:20:58 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “NASA AS10-33-4914” (NASA MSC) in black in top margin

262 g
Eugene Cernan, Thomas Stafford, or John Young

The lunar horizon over Crater Neper

Apollo 10, May 18-26, 1969, orbit 2-12

Unreleased photograph, vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso (NASA / North American Rockwell) [NASA AS10- 34-5081]
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)
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Lot Essay

262 a
The photograph was taken from the window of the Command module docked with the LM during translunar coast, showing the rendezvous radar antenna of the LM.

From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:

053:49:00 Young: Okay. It may sound like we’ve been loafing for the past couple of days, but we haven’t. We’ve been real busy, and every spare minute we get we study our Flight Plan. So you see that pretty soon we’re going to be going into orbit, and we have a completely different set of operations to go into that shows our pitch profile all around the Moon, for the first revolution. Tomorrow’s a big day, and we’re very much looking for it. Even though we’re about 180,000 miles [333,000 km] away from the Earth here, you never get away from studying.

262 b
These photographs taken over the lunar farside with magazine 33/T and the 250mm telephoto lens show the wall and floor of a crater located between Craters Mandel’stham and Henderson (latitude / longitude: 3.5° N / 159.5° E); a fresh bright crater located on the northeast rim of the 123-km Chaplygin Crater (5° S / 152 E); an area near Hartman Crater (0° N / 131° E); and a crater located between Craters Becvar and Langemak (5.5° S / 122° E).

From the mission transcript as the astronauts were taking their first look at the Moon:

076:03:24 Stafford: Oh, man! Oh, man, look at those shallow craters.
076:03:28 Cernan: Holy smoley!
076:03:29 Young: Okay.
076:03:30 Cernan: I guess we has arrived.
076:03:31 Stafford: You’d better believe it.
076:03:32 Young: I’ll tell you something. By God, they are craters!
076:03:34 Stafford: Yes. They sure don’t look like it, but they’re [garble] shit!
076:03:38 Young: Get some pictures, you guys. [...]
076:04:14 Young: That’s the weirdest-looking surface - there’s some color in that. [...]
076:04:23 Stafford: It’s a brownish gray, old buddy.
076:04:22 Cernan: Like a big sandbox, though, isn’t it?
076:04:24 Stafford: Yes.
076:04:25 Cernan: We is at the Moon, fellows! Can you believe that? [...]
076:04:29 Cernan: 60 miles?
076:04:30 Stafford: And I don’t see a level spot in the whole thing. Yes, I guess we might be down close.
076:04:33 Young: It’s fascinating...

262 c
These photographs taken with magazine 33/T and the 250mm telephoto lens show a fresh bright crater (latitude / longitude: 2° S / 90° E); and a smaller bright crater (6° S / 89.5° E) both located in Smyth’s Sea west and northwest of Crater Hirayama. Smyth’s Sea is located on the eastern limb of the Moon as seen from Earth on the equatorial border between the Moon’s nearside and backside.

From the mission transcript as the astronauts were orbiting for the first time over Smyth’s Sea and about to acquire signal with Earth:

076:22:34 Young: Yes. Look at that planet, look at that thing there?
076:22:36 Cernan: Yes.
076:22:38 Young: Hey, that’s something isn’t it?
076:22:39 Stafford: Here’s another volcano for - for Jack to look at. There’s no doubt that there’s a...
076:22:43 Cernan: There’s two of them. See them
together?
076:22:44 Stafford: We got...
076:22:45 Young: Oh, no, that doesn’t - that’s not - that little white one, Tom?
076:22:49 Stafford: Yes, I was wondering...
076:22:50 Cernan: That - that with all those rays; that’s got to be an impact crater or something like that, I’ll bet. [...]
076:24:29 Duke (Mission Control): Hello, Apollo 10. Houston. Over.
076:24:34 Stafford: Roger, Houston. Apollo 10. You can tell the world that we have arrived.
076:24:39 Duke: Roger, 10. It’s good to hear from you.
076:24:41 Young: Boy, you wouldn’t believe this thing.

262 d
A sharp and beautiful vertical photograph taken through the 250mm telephoto lens of these very distinctive conical craters. Messier (top) and Messier A (bottom) are about 10 km in diameter. Latitude / longitude: 1.6° S / 48.1° E.
076:43:48 Cernan: Hey, Charlie. You will be glad to know we are walking right up our LM chart, right up our track in the Apollo Ridge, right now. We’ve just seen the four Taruntius: Papa, Kilo, Hotel and George. We’ve seen big Taruntius; we’re looking at Messier and Messier A; and Secchi K ought to be coming up, and then Secchi.
076:44:10 Duke: Roger. We copy, 10. We are following along with you.
Public Affairs Officer (Mission Control): That was Gene Cernan calling out those landmarks along the ground track.

262 e
An oblique photograph taken looking south through the 250mm telephoto lens showing the 76-km Crater Gutenberg (top) and the overlapping 28-km Crater Gutenberg E (top left). The 32-km Crater Gutenberg E is in the highlands in the foreground. The western Sea of Fertility is at the left. Latitude / longitude: 6.6° S / 40.4° E.

From the mission transcript as the spacecraft was orbiting over the western Sea of Fertility:

076:45:14 Cernan: And, Houston. Secchi is very well defined as we come into Apollo Ridge. The rille perpendicular to the ridge and parallel to the ridge is very well defined in this area. The chicken-track area is very easy to see from this altitude.
076:45:33 Duke (Mission Control): We copy, 10.
076:47:03 Duke: 10, Houston. As you near Site 1, if you get a chance, could you comment on the volcanic cones and the highlands south of track? Over.

262 f
The photograph was taken through the 250mm telephoto lens. At the time of the mission the astronauts referred to the giant 313-km Crater Mendeleev as “Basin IX”. In the western half of the floor is a chain of tiny craters named the Catena Mendeleev. Latitude / longitude: 7.1° N / 139.4° E.

078:20:37 Young: God, that’s weird-looking.
078:20:58 Stafford: Oh, here’s some string of crater chains from the big IX. The big crater IX, Gene-o; look it.
078:21:02 Cernan: Yes. Let me see them.
078:21:05 Stafford: See that rille? See that line there?
078:21:07 Cernan: Yes, yes, that’s slanting - that’s slanting.

262 g
This photograph looking west-northwest was taken with the 80mm lens between orbits 2 and 12 before undocking which happened on orbit 12.
It shows the lunar horizon over the 137-km Crater Neper. Smyth’s Sea is in the lower left corner and the Boarder Sea at the upper right. Latitude / longitude: 4° N / 85° E.

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