3 replies to this topic

[Tom Duncan]

Got this strip of developed 35mm black and white film, appears to show panoramic photos of the surface of the Moon. There are five images, each about 15" long, second photo shows a typical section. 

 

Anyone shed any light on this? 

 

Thanks

 

Tom Duncan 

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[deepwoods1]

Interesting. Can’t wait for the mystery to be solved.

[jelloptic]

Tom, and others,

I suspect that what you have are reproductions of the lunar panoramic pictures taken by NASA during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions in the early 1970's.  I say reproductions because the original film format was not 35mm, but 5-inch wide (127mm) Kodak type 3414 film.  The camera was provided to NASA by the former Itek Optical Systems of Lexington, Mass.  It was a space-hardened version of their KA-80 camera, and was installed in the Service Module of the Apollo vehicle.  It was activated by the CM pilot while in lunar orbit (approx. 60 miles high).  During the return trip to earth, an astronaut had to go EVA to retrieve the film cannister from the camera, for safe storage in the CM (command module) because, as you may recall, the Service Module was lost and burnt up during re-entry.  In my view, the world's most expensive one-shot disposable cameras!

I know something of these cameras because I worked for Itek in the post-Apollo era, 1978 til 1996.

May I ask when and how did you come by this film strip?   Are there any markings which would identify which mission? 

 

regards,  Kim Lemerise

[Tom Duncan]

Thanks for the info Kim.

 

Frankly I'm not sure how exactly it came to me. I've recently bought three large astro collections and with them came a lot of bits and pieces, this being one of them. I've had it for a few months, just now getting to the bottom of the barrel so to speak. 

 

There are no markings on the film other than what you can see, which I think are just contrast control bars. 

 

Tom