Moon in Gemini photography

Moon in orbital GEMINI photography

Appearances of the distant moon in Earth photographs made during NASA's manned GEMINI program (1965 - 1966)
An investigation of GEMINI's scanned mission photographs, all online in the site March to the Moon

By:
Danny Caes
Co-investigators:
Wilfried Tost
Patricio (Nunki) Leon
(without Patricio I would never have known about the existence of the March to the Moon website! Thanks Patricio!)
After a message to both the Moon-Wiki's and LPOD's members (on march the 1st, 2012), Wilfried Tost of Berlin-Germany send me a preliminary list of ID-numbers (of orbital Gemini 7, Gemini 9, and Gemini 12 photographs in which the moon was captured)

The 10 manned GEMINI missions (1965-1966)

GEMINI 3 (Grissom/ Young)
Launch date: march 23th, 1965
Mission duration: 5 hours

• Last Quarter Moon: march 25th

GEMINI 4 (McDivitt/ White)
Launch date: june 3th, 1965
Mission duration: 4 days, 2 hours

• First Quarter Moon: june 6th

S65-34823_G04-H shows the distant First Quarter Moon near the lower left corner of the frame (detected by Danny Caes, september 21st, 2014). This might be the only Gemini photograph in which the First Quarter Moon was captured.

G'EMINI 5 (Conrad/ Cooper)'
Launch date: august 21st, 1965
Mission duration: 7 days, 23 hours

• Last Quarter Moon: august 20th
• New Moon: august 26th

GEMINI 6 (Schirra/ Stafford)
Launch date: december 15th, 1965
Mission duration: 1 day, 2 hours

• Last Quarter Moon: december 15th

S65-63183_G06-H shows the distant Last Quarter Moon "above" the back side of Gemini 7 (photograph made during the orbital Rendez-Vous of Gemini 6 and Gemini 7)
S65-63192_G06-H doesn't show the moon, but... it shows James Lovell's face behind the small window of Gemini 7's capsule. Note the camera which he is holding, close to the window's glass! (see extreme Hi-Res scan!)
S65-63237_G06-H shows the distant Last Quarter Moon and the curved horizon of earth
S65-63238_G06-H also shows the distant Last Quarter Moon, and nearby earth
S65-63250_G06-H shows the distant Last Quarter Moon near the central part of the frame's left margin
(moon in Gemini 6 photography detected by Danny Caes, september 2014)

GEMINI 7 (Borman/ Lovell)
Launch date: december 4th, 1965
Mission duration: 13 days, 18 hours, 36 minutes

• First Quarter Moon: december 1st
• Full Moon: december 8th
• Last Quarter Moon: december 15th (during Rendez-Vous with Gemini 6)

S65-63816_G07-H shows the distant Waxing Gibbous Moon and earth's curved horizon
S65-63820_G07-H also shows the Waxing Gibbous Moon near earth's curved horizon
S65-63846_G07-H shows an over-exposed look at the Full Moon, note the pink colored Cirrus clouds along earth's terminator
S65-63847_G07-H shows the flattened appearance of the Full Moon, caused by earth's atmosphere
S65-63852_G07-H shows the Full Moon and earth's curved horizon
S65-63872_G07-H shows the Full Moon and earth's curved horizon
S65-63873_G07-H shows the Full Moon and earth's curved horizon
The orbital Rendez-Vous of GEMINI 6 and GEMINI 7 (Gemini 6 was only one day in orbit around earth, during Last Quarter Moon)
S65-63894_G07-H shows the capsule of Gemini 6 with the Last Quarter Moon just "above" the nose of the capsule (detected by Danny Caes, september 2014)
S65-64042_G07-H and S65-64043_G07-H Both these photographs show the very faint Last Quarter Moon to the "left" of the Gemini 6 capsule (detected by Danny Caes, september 2014)

GEMINI 8 (Armstrong/ Scott)
Launch date: march 16th, 1966
Mission duration: 11 hours

• Last Quarter Moon: march 14th

S66-25781_G08H shows the Waning Crescent Moon just "above" the far end of the AGENA booster.

GEMINI 9 (Cernan/ Stafford)
Launch date: june 3th, 1966
Mission duration: 3 days

• Full Moon: june 3th

S66-37929_G09-H shows the distant Full Moon
S66-37930_G09-H shows the distant Full Moon
S66-37931_G09-H shows the distant Full Moon
S66-37936_G09-H shows the crippled ATDA (Augmented Target Docking Adapter) and the distant Full Moon
S66-38062_G09-H shows the "white" section of Gemini 9's capsule, the distant Waning Gibbous Moon, and earth's curved horizon (this photograph was made during Gene Cernan's EVA)
S66-38288_G09-H shows the Waning Gibbous Moon and earth's terminator, note the long shadows at the pink colored clouds!
S66-38289_G09-H shows the Waning Gibbous Moon

GEMINI 10 (Collins/ Young)
Launch date: july 18th, 1966
Mission duration: 3 days

• New Moon: july 18th

GEMINI 11 (Conrad/ Gordon)
Launch date: september 12th, 1966
Mission duration: 3 days

• New Moon: september 14th

GEMINI 12 (Aldrin/ Lovell)
Launch date: november 11th, 1966
Mission duration: 4 days

• New Moon: november 12th, with solar eclipse

S66-63414_G12-S
S66-63415_G12-S


See also page 553 in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC of April 1966 (the article SPACE RENDEZVOUS: MILESTONE ON THE WAY TO THE MOON, by Kenneth F. Weaver; pages 538 to 553) (the illustrated story of the twins in space: Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, which also shows a wonderful photograph of the Full Moon above Earth's curved horizon, made by James Lovell of Gemini 7).
- DannyCaes Mar 1, 2012

Moon in orbital APOLLO 9 photography

Appearances of the distant moon in EVA photographs made during the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) mission of APOLLO 9 in 1969.

Apollo 9:'
- Date of launch: March the 3th, 1969.
- Duration of mission: 10 days, one hour, one minute.
- Full Moon: March the 4th.
- Last Quarter Moon: March the 11th.
- New Moon: March the 18th.

AS9-23-3500 (Last Quarter moon: Oceanus Procellarum, Mare Imbrium, Mare Humorum, Mare Nubium).
AS9-20-3058 (distant moon and one of LM Spiders nozzle clusters).
AS9-20-3059 (distant moon and one of LM Spiders legs).
AS9-20-3066 (distant moon and part of LM Spiders Descent Stage).

Scans: Ed Hengeveld (Kipp Teague's Project Apollo Archive).

Moon in orbital APOLLO 7 photography?

The first one of Apollo's two LEO missions (Apollo 7 and Apollo 9) was launched on October the 11th of 1968. The mission's duration was 10 days.
Full Moon was on October the 6th, Last Quarter Moon was on October the 14th, and New Moon was on October the 21st.
Now, there's a possibility that the Waning moon was captured on several orbital photographs made during Apollo 7.
Who's the first to detect the moon in Apollo 7's photography?