LUNAR ORBITER PROGRAM - Lot 91

LUNAR ORBITER PROGRAM Photograph of Lunar Orbiter 2, from the famous 100-kilometer crater known as Copernicus. Black & white photograph, 19 x 23 cm, vintage print on Kodak paper (Kodak paper mentioned on back) without information printed on verso. This spectacular view has been dubbed "the image of the century". The oblique image was taken at around 23:05 GMT on November 23, at an altitude of 45.9 kilometers above the lunar surface and 240 kilometers south of the famous crater. It shows a three-kilometre-deep crater, cliffs up to 900 metres high and a series of central peaks scattered over 16 kilometers, culminating at 450 to 600 metres above the crater floor. The photos transmitted by Lunar Orbiter were decisive in the choice of future landing sites for the Apollo and Surveyor missions.