A COLLECTꦚION OF BOOKS ON ASTRONAUT PHOTOGRAPHY, SIGNED BY ASTRONAUTS WHO TOOK THE PHOTOGRAPHS 

The present lot comprises a staggering collection of photography from the Ge♊mini through early Apollo eras. The first two Gemini books include almost 250 color photographs each, alongside detailed information on the geographic areas, flight film, and data on individual frames.  ♛ 

In Exploring Space with a Camera, Editor Cortright states: “This is a collection of the best photographs taken from space during the first decade of space exploration….”  Indeed, it contains a treasure trove of images of the Earth and planets taken by both astronauts and uncrewed spacecraft. Captions for these images and book chapters are written by managers, scientists and engineers who were involved in each mission. Several 🌳captions are written by the Mercury and Gemini astronauts relating their flight experience prior to and during the picture taking events. 

This Island Earth contains almost 200 photographs, many in full 70mm Hasselblad format. Many of these vivid Earth photographs were obtained by the Apollo 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 crews while in Earth orbit and/or translunar space. Highlighted are images from Apollo 9 which were the first multi-spectral photographs taken in earth orbit. As editor Oran Nicks states: “The astronauts’ descriptions from space, the pictures returned from space, and the strong desire to share these experiences with others have led to the preparation of this book.”