136. [Surveyor III] THE FIRST-EVER PHOTOGRAPH OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN BY THE EARTH, TAKEN FROM THE MOON NASA, 24 April 1967 Printed 1967. Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image 113-KSC-67-8349]. With NASA caption numbered "113-KSC-67-8349" and Technicolour photo laboratory quality control stamp on the reverse (issued by NASA Kennedy Space Centre, Florida). 25.4 x 20.3 cm. (10 x 8 in.) Historical context Surveyor III, the second American lander to successfully explore the Moon's surface, captured this extraordinary first photograph of an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth. This historic image marks the first time our Home Planet was observed from the surface of another world. "The photograph is the first one in which man has been able to observe an eclipse of the Sun by his own Planet. Surveyor III took the view from the Moon with the wide-angle mode of its TV camera. Most prominent in the picture is the white cap of light caused by the bending of the Sun's light as it passed through the Earth's atmosphere. The cap is much brighter than the rest because of the Sun's proximity to that limb, causing a greater proportion of sunlight to be refracted. The beaded appearance around the remaining portion of the Earth's atmosphere is due largely to the interruption of the band of light by overcast areas." J. J. Rennilson, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Cortright, p. 128) The Apollo 12 astronauts were the only humans in history to witness such a view of an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth during their homeward journey from the Moon in November 1969. [NASA caption] SURVEYOR III — Both sunrise and sunset on Earth are seen in this photo of the Earth's disc passing across the sun as photographed from a vantage point on the moon. The picture was taken by Surveyor III's television camera at 3:24 a.m. PST during the April 24 eclipse. On the upper left side of the disc, the sun is setting over Asia and the Indian Ocean. The lower right edge shows sunrise over the southeast Pacific. At this stage of the eclipse, the Earth and sun are 42 minutes into the period of totality. The brightest portion of the lighted ring around the Earth is in the northwest quadrant of the Earth as viewed from the moon. This is the eastern portion of the Asian Continent. Literature Exploring Space with a Camera (NASA SP-168), Cortright, ed., p. 128