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Lot 181
[Apollo 8] EARTH, A SMALL AND FRAGILE ISLAND FLOATING IN THE VASTNESS OF SPACE William Anders, December 21-27, 1968
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €1,024 inc. premium
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[Apollo 8] EARTH, A SMALL AND FRAGILE ISLAND FLOATING IN THE VASTNESS OF SPACE
William Anders, December 21-27, 1968
Printed 1968.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA AS8-16-2627].
Numbered "NASA AS8-16-2627" in red in the top margin, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This extraordinary photograph of our home planet, floating in the dark void of space during humanity's first return journey from another world, underscores its preciousness—the kind of image that forever changed humanity's perception of its place in the universe.
William Anders captured this breathtaking view when the Apollo 8 crew was deep in space, approximately 78,000 nautical miles (145,000 km) from home, while his fellow astronauts, James Lovell and Frank Borman, rested.
"The biggest philosophy, foundation-shaking impression was seeing the smallness of the Earth. [...] Even the pictures don't do it justice because they always have this frame around them. But when you put your eyeball to the window of the spacecraft, you can see essentially half of the universe."
—William Anders
Printed 1968.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA AS8-16-2627].
Numbered "NASA AS8-16-2627" in red in the top margin, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This extraordinary photograph of our home planet, floating in the dark void of space during humanity's first return journey from another world, underscores its preciousness—the kind of image that forever changed humanity's perception of its place in the universe.
William Anders captured this breathtaking view when the Apollo 8 crew was deep in space, approximately 78,000 nautical miles (145,000 km) from home, while his fellow astronauts, James Lovell and Frank Borman, rested.
"The biggest philosophy, foundation-shaking impression was seeing the smallness of the Earth. [...] Even the pictures don't do it justice because they always have this frame around them. But when you put your eyeball to the window of the spacecraft, you can see essentially half of the universe."
—William Anders
Footnotes
The photograph was taken with the Hasselblad 500EL equipped with an 80mm lens.
From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:
133:12:00 Public Affairs Officer (Mission Control): This is Apollo Control, Houston; at 133 hours, 12 minutes. At this point, Apollo 8 is traveling at a velocity of 6,914 feet per second [2,107 m/s], and our current altitude reading is 77,946 nautical miles [144,356 km]. We've just heard from Bill Anders for the first time in about 3 hours. Bill has been getting some rest and we anticipate at this time both Borman and Lovell are resting while Bill is on watch.
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