At the end of the development phase of the Apollo program, the Lunar Orbiter unmanned machines improve the knowledge of the Moon. Their five missions carried out in 1966 and 1967 are a complete success enabling NASA to select the lunar landing sites, mapping both faces with a resolution better than 60 meters, and photographing some selected sites with a resolution that reached 1 meter.
The imaging technique is designed by Eastman Kodak. Two lenses of focal length 610 and 90 mm converge to a 70 mm silver film processed and scanned in the orbiter. The five missions overall sent to the Earth by analog video 2180 detailed images plus 882 images covering altogether the entire surface of the Moon.
The most shining point of the Moon, observed for the first time in 1645, is the crater Aristarchus. It was created by the oblique impact of a meteorite. It is 40 km in diameter with 2 km highest altitude above the surroundings and a maximum depth of 3.7 km. Its high albedo is due to the fact that its origin is not exceeding 450 million years so that its erosion is still limited. Radioactive phenomena remain.
The high resolution coverage of Aristarchus was carried out in four tele-panoramic images by Lunar Orbiter V in August 1967. The crater was too rugged and too atypical to attempt a manned mission. Only two photographic assemblies were made with an overall format 130 x 146 cm. One of them is kept at the George Eastman House in Rochester NY. The other one is estimated $ 100K for sale by Sotheby's in New York on July 20, lot 13.
The techniques of images have been dramatically improved. Since 2007 the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project is digitally converting the most interesting pictures recorded in the Lunar Orbiter magnetic tapes. The best of them including the very first image of the crescent Earth viewed from the Moon reach a spectacular sharpness after its digital processing.
unsold
The imaging technique is designed by Eastman Kodak. Two lenses of focal length 610 and 90 mm converge to a 70 mm silver film processed and scanned in the orbiter. The five missions overall sent to the Earth by analog video 2180 detailed images plus 882 images covering altogether the entire surface of the Moon.
The most shining point of the Moon, observed for the first time in 1645, is the crater Aristarchus. It was created by the oblique impact of a meteorite. It is 40 km in diameter with 2 km highest altitude above the surroundings and a maximum depth of 3.7 km. Its high albedo is due to the fact that its origin is not exceeding 450 million years so that its erosion is still limited. Radioactive phenomena remain.
The high resolution coverage of Aristarchus was carried out in four tele-panoramic images by Lunar Orbiter V in August 1967. The crater was too rugged and too atypical to attempt a manned mission. Only two photographic assemblies were made with an overall format 130 x 146 cm. One of them is kept at the George Eastman House in Rochester NY. The other one is estimated $ 100K for sale by Sotheby's in New York on July 20, lot 13.
The techniques of images have been dramatically improved. Since 2007 the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project is digitally converting the most interesting pictures recorded in the Lunar Orbiter magnetic tapes. The best of them including the very first image of the crescent Earth viewed from the Moon reach a spectacular sharpness after its digital processing.
unsold
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