285. [Apollo 12] EXTRAORDINARY VIEW OF THE HALF-ILLUMINATED PLANET EARTH Alan Bean, Pete Conrad or Richard Gordon, 14-24 November 1969 Printed 1969. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS12-50-7353]. With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS12-50-7353" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context This stunning photograph of a perfect half-disk of Earth captures the entire American continent. North America appears at the top, while South America extends toward the bottom. The image was taken after translunar injection with an 80mm lens from an altitude of approximately 16,000 nautical miles, following the transposition, docking, and extraction of the Lunar Module, and the subsequent jettisoning of the Saturn IV-B stage. Around this time, the Apollo 12 crew was transmitting live TV footage back to Earth: 004:19:55 Bean: Earth is about one and a half times the size of a basketball right now. 004:22:41 Gordon: Houston, we're changing the scenery on you (with the TV camera); we'll come back to that S-IVB just before it goes. 004:22:58 Gordon: How does the homeland look to you? 004:23:02 Carr (Mission Control): Beginning to look kind of small.