625 a
Harrison Schmitt

The Earth horizon over Australia during the first orbit of the Earth before translunar injection

Apollo 17, December 7-19, 1972, 001:00:33 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, numbered “NASA AS17-148-22608” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin

625 b
Harrison Schmitt

Sunset on Earth seen from space

Apollo 17, December 7-19, 1972, 001:27:47 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, numbered “NASA AS17-148-22614” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin

625 c
Harrison Schmitt

Views of Africa from space during the second orbit before translunar injection

Apollo 17, December 7-19, 1972, 002:00:41 to 002:25:10 GET

Four unreleased photographs, vintage chromogenic prints on fiber-based Kodak paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA AS17-148-22631, AS17-148-22637, AS17-148-22642, AS17-148-22649” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

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Lot Essay

625 a
A beautiful view of the Gulf of Carpentaria taken through the 80mm lens.

001:XX:XX Evans: I haven’t had a chance to look out the window yet. [...]
001:XX:XX Cernan: No. [Humming] It’s just a big lake region.
001:XX:XX Cernan: [Garble] what’s that with trees and grass?

625 b
The photograph was taken through the 80mm lens during the first orbit before translunar injection.

“Briefly, right at the terminator horizon of the Earth, you get sharp shadow definition of cloud features. At the sunlit horizon from lunar distance that’s a very clear definition between the black of space and the upper portion of the Earth. In Earth orbit and near Earth, you can see the gradation of that horizon caused by the atmosphere. At night around the Earth, there’s a very clear horizon glow all around the Earth. Air glow, I guess you would call it. And the horns of the crescent Earth are much sharper and elongated compared to those of the crescent Moon, as if light was being diffracted into the atmosphere and in extending the length of the horns of the crescent,” explained Harrison Schmitt (from the 1973 NASA Technical debrief).

001:XX:XX Cernan: We ought to be able to see California in the dark. There’s Baja.
001:XX:XX Schmitt: I don’t have a good feeling for where our Flight Plan is right now, does anybody?
001:27:06 Cernan: Yes, 90-degree launch azimuth means we’re on our next latitude. We’re coming up on our next latitude, which is Cape [garble] latitude - the next latitude will be for the Cape.
001:XX:XX Schmitt: But we’re going across here...
001:XX:XX Cernan : A little bit more than the Cape, because it actually was 91½.
001:XX:XX Schmitt : [Garble] we’re going across Arizona and that’s Baja California, probably.
001:XX:XX Cernan: Yes, we’re coming up over San Diego; we should be [garble].
001:27:47 Schmitt: Turn on your lights, San Diego. Boy, it’s pretty near over my home, I guess.
001:27:49 Cernan: Yes.
001:28:00 Overmyer (Mission Control): 17, Houston. We’re back with you.

625 c
Grootfontein, South West Africa; Botswana, South of Makarikari Pans; Bay of Laurenco, Marques Mozambique; Madagascar seen from orbit through the 80mm lens before translunar injection.

“A spectacular group of 70-millimeter Hasselblad EL color photographs exposed in Earth orbit portrayed the sunlit portion of the Earth from the South Atlantic Ocean across Africa and the Indian Ocean to Australia“ (https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_17/photography/).

002:28:32 Schmitt: Okay. You’ve got Omni Charlie. And, Bob (Overmeyer at Mission Control), we had almost a completely weather-free pass over Africa and Madagascar. And the scenery - both aesthetically and geologically - was something like I’ve never seen before, for sure.