313. [Apollo 12] THE FIRST SPACE SUN ECLIPSE WITNESSED BY HUMANS Alan Bean, Pete Conrad or Richard Gordon, 14-24 November 1969 Printed 1969. Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image 69-H-1997]. With NASA caption numbered "69-H-1997", "69-HC-1350" on the reverse (issued by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context A stunning cosmic spectacle—witnessed only by Apollo 12, leaving the crew absolutely stunned (see mission transcript). At 30,000 nautical miles from home, the Apollo 12 crew witnessed an extraordinary celestial event—the Earth passing directly between the Sun and their spacecraft. This scene, only visible from space, was uniquely experienced and imaged by the crew using the 16 mm camera and the Hasselblad camera and black-and-white film (as they had run out of colour film). Richard Gordon on this unforgettable sight: "Now, we saw an eclipse coming back on Apollo 12, which nobody else had experienced before. It was a beautiful sight. It was very, very impressive. It looked like a damn diamond ring... We were pretty close to the Earth for the eclipse, so it was pretty good size, but only a very small crescent of the atmosphere was illuminated, and then the Sun kind of... went behind the Earth, and then came back out around the corner again... The Earth was totally black; we couldn't see a damn thing on the Earth. Just black, I mean, nothing was illuminating it. There was the black of space, the black of the Earth that you couldn't distinguish anything on, and then we saw a little crescent of atmosphere..." — Richard Gordon (Chaikin, Space, p. 126) From the mission transcript during the eclipse: 240:33:39 Gordon: We're getting a spectacular view at eclipse. We're using the Sun filter for the G&N optics, looking through, and it's unbelievable. 240:33:48 Weitz (Mission Control): Roger. Understand, Dick. 240:33:57 Gordon: The reason it looks so much different is the limb of the Earth is eclipsing it. It's not quite a straight line, but it's certainly a large, large disk right now. Looks quite a bit different than when you see the Moon eclipse the Sun. 240:34:15 Weitz: Roger. 240:34:18 Bean: Anybody down there know how—I—what we can set the camera at to use the Sun filter on it? To—to—take a couple of shots of this eclipse right through it? 240:34:31 Weitz: Stand by and we'll check. 240:34:35 Bean: They'd better hustle. 240:34:38 Weitz: Okay. 240:34:47 Bean: Funny thing is, you cannot see the Earth at all when you just shield your hand from the Sun and look out right next to it where the Earth should be. It's not there at all. When you stick your smoked glass up, you can see where it's cutting the Sun. Otherwise, it's completely invisible. Literature LIFE, 12 December 1969, p. 37 (variant)