Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

[Gemini XII] SPECTACULAR SUNLIT EARTH OVER THE BAHAMAS Buzz Aldrin or James Lovell, 11-15 November 1966 image 1
[Gemini XII] SPECTACULAR SUNLIT EARTH OVER THE BAHAMAS Buzz Aldrin or James Lovell, 11-15 November 1966 image 2
Lot 131

[Gemini XII] SPECTACULAR SUNLIT EARTH OVER THE BAHAMAS
Buzz Aldrin or James Lovell, 11-15 November 1966

14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue Hoche

Sold for €384 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Post-War and Contemporary Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

[Gemini XII] SPECTACULAR SUNLIT EARTH OVER THE BAHAMAS

Buzz Aldrin or James Lovell, 11-15 November 1966

Printed 1966.

Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-66-63418].
With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA).

20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)

Historical context
In this breathtaking southward view, bathed in harsh sunlight, the southern half of Florida, the Bahamas (Andros, Grand Bahama, Bimini), and Cuba—featuring both industrialized and untouched landscapes—unfold beneath Gemini XII docked to the Agena. Captured with the Super-Wide Hasselblad camera and its 38mm lens, this luminous image beautifully showcases Earth's natural splendour from space.

Footnotes

As the astronauts orbited Earth, they repeatedly passed over their starting point above Florida's east coast, each revolution offering new lighting and a fresh perspective on the world below.

"Since the girdle that the Gemini program threw around the world did not extend as far north as south of Cape Kennedy, the astronauts' photographs are predominantly views of the southern coast of the United States around the Gulf of Mexico. This is a region in which people have been quick to develop the resources available to them, and parts of it are now highly industrialized. Even so, when seen from space its beauty still rivals that of many undeveloped regions. [...] Above Florida's east coast, they (the astronauts) saw their starting point again and sped east again and again to see more of the world."
—NASA SP-171, p. 227

Literature
Earth Photographs from Gemini VI through XII (NASA SP-171), p. 7

Additional information

Bid now on these items