[Apollo 8] - Earthrise. Vintage chromogenic print taken by LMP William Anders

[Apollo 8]

Earthrise

Vintage chromogenic print, 10^1/2 x 14 in., "A Kodak Paper" watermark on verso; minor chip across top edge. Taken on Christmas Eve, 1968.

THE FIRST EARTHRISE TO BE SEEN BY HUMAN EYES. A remarkable image of Earthrise taken by Apollo 8 Lunar Module Pilot William Anders after emerging from the far side of the moon on their third orbit. Anders said of the incredible moment: "We'd spent most of our time on Earth training about how to study the Moon, how to go to the Moon; it was very lunar oriented. And yet, when I looked up and saw the Earth coming up on this very stark, beat-up lunar horizon, and Earth that was the only color that we could see, a very fragile-looking Earth, a very delicate looking Earth, I was immediately almost overcome by the thought that here we came all this way to see the Moon, and yet the most significant thing we're seeing is our own home planet, the Earth." (Poole)

LITERATURE

Poole, Robert. Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth, p. 2; Schick and Van Haaften, The View From Space: American Astronaut Photography 1962-1972, p. 98.