Dominique Ciccolella
Sale Coordinator and Expert Liaison
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
![[Apollo 10] THE FIRST SPACECRAFT EVER PHOTOGRAPHED ABOVE ANOTHER WORLD: CSM Charlie Brown orbiting the Moon Eugene Cernan, 18–26 May 1969 image 1](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-03%2F24%2F25639331-187-1.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![[Apollo 10] THE FIRST SPACECRAFT EVER PHOTOGRAPHED ABOVE ANOTHER WORLD: CSM Charlie Brown orbiting the Moon Eugene Cernan, 18–26 May 1969 image 2](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-03%2F24%2F25639331-187-2.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
Lot 208
[Apollo 10] THE FIRST SPACECRAFT EVER PHOTOGRAPHED ABOVE ANOTHER WORLD: CSM Charlie Brown orbiting the Moon Eugene Cernan, 18–26 May 1969
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €460.80 inc. premium
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 specialistAsk about this lot
Sabine Cornette de Saint Cyr
Head of Department
Chloe Mayot
Senior Cataloguer
Marion Richard
Specialist
[Apollo 10] THE FIRST SPACECRAFT EVER PHOTOGRAPHED ABOVE ANOTHER WORLD: CSM Charlie Brown orbiting the Moon
Eugene Cernan, 18–26 May 1969
Printed 1969.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS10-27-3873].
With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS10-27-3873" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This stunning photograph, taken from the Lunar Module Snoopy on orbit 12, highlights the reflective nature of the Command Module Charlie Brown as it orbits 69 miles above the Moon. Under direct sunlight, the lunar surface appears as bright tones in the spacecraft's reflection, while its darker sections mirror the blackness of space.
Parts of the LM window are visible in the right foreground, framing the view. Below Charlie Brown is Smyth's Sea, a dark basaltic plain located near the lunar equator, just beyond the Moon's eastern limb as seen from Earth.
Piloted by John Young, the Command Module—12 feet in diameter and weighing 12,500 pounds—prompted Eugene Cernan aboard the LM Snoopy to remark with amusement:
"John, babe, you're a weird-looking machine," before adding, "You're the first vehicle photographed by another around the Moon. How does that grab you?" (see mission transcript).
Printed 1969.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS10-27-3873].
With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS10-27-3873" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This stunning photograph, taken from the Lunar Module Snoopy on orbit 12, highlights the reflective nature of the Command Module Charlie Brown as it orbits 69 miles above the Moon. Under direct sunlight, the lunar surface appears as bright tones in the spacecraft's reflection, while its darker sections mirror the blackness of space.
Parts of the LM window are visible in the right foreground, framing the view. Below Charlie Brown is Smyth's Sea, a dark basaltic plain located near the lunar equator, just beyond the Moon's eastern limb as seen from Earth.
Piloted by John Young, the Command Module—12 feet in diameter and weighing 12,500 pounds—prompted Eugene Cernan aboard the LM Snoopy to remark with amusement:
"John, babe, you're a weird-looking machine," before adding, "You're the first vehicle photographed by another around the Moon. How does that grab you?" (see mission transcript).
Footnotes
From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:
098:18:21 Cernan (Snoopy): Take some at f:8 and f - oh, you're putting that up there. Taking you, John, babe, you're a weird-looking machine.
098:20:11 Cernan (Snoopy): John, you're the first vehicle photographed by another around the Moon. How does that grab you?
098:20:16 Young (Charlie Brown): That grabs me good.
098:20:49 Stafford (Snoopy): Can you come in a little way here just slowly.
098:20:52 Young (Charlie Brown): Yes. I'm coming in.
Literature
The View from Space: American Astronaut Photography, 1962–1972, Schick and Van Haaften, p. 63
Full Moon, Light, plate 106; Moon, Man's Greatest Adventure, Thomas, p. 177
Watch more
CLICK HERE: Apollo 10 - 16-mm magazine 1108-K