Space Exploration Auction - Feast Eyes and Drool

Sotheby's are having an auction that will make your mouths water and your minds wander to Junior’s college fund. It includes photographs from the earliest days of astrophotography and snapshots taken by Apollo astronauts. Many of you will understand how these individual pieces are also profound symbols. They represent peaks in the progress of humanity, the evolution of technology and highlight our place in the local cosmos; they symbolise the better qualities of the human spirit.

My breath was taken by the beauty of this Moon image from 1855. Take a second and shift your perspective to the mid-19th Century – now hold it there. The eye that framed this belonged to Warren De la Rue who was, at that time, making waves amongst astronomers and early physicists. From poor beginnings he invented one of the first electric light bulbs at 25; a special man, but not the reason why I caught my breath.



The beautiful picture (above) can be said to represent a more innocent time. Not in the sense that people were any better; more of the world itself. Very few people will have ever seen the Moon in such detail and their awareness of local space would expand in an instant. For the world’s part, the oceans were teeming with life and rainforests were still unexplored. Even the ‘dark heart of Africa’ was yet to hear the footsteps of missionaries or the whipcrack of rifle fire.



This next one fits with De la Rue’s in the way it epitomises innocence and the values of exploring the unknown. Whereas he was down here looking up, this is taken from up there looking back at us. There’s a neat symmetry of purpose, isn’t there?

Now we’re in the ‘summer of love’ and it’s 1967. Down on Earth, people are rebelling and overturning the traditions that old De la Rue’s society was taking for granted. Lunar Orbiter V gazes back at a world where Vietnam is burning and ‘All You Need is Love’ is at Number 1 in the charts. Imagine the cold and the silence out there as Light My Fire played down here to crescendos of violence and slaughter? It’s more than just an image, right? It’s a context, a poem and it’s a lens to see ourselves through.



When I look through the catalogue all I see is human curiosity and step after step of history being created. The Lunar Orbiter image might one day be hanging in a hall on another world. If it does, it'll be there as an embodiment of endeavour and as a testament to an Earth that might be inhospitable. It could become a nostalgic icon and tagged with the legend, 'Home Sweet Home.' You never know.

Check out the rest of the auction lots and see what catches your eye.



N.B. Neil Armstrong's Moon dust is also for sale in Moon dust collected by Neil Armstrong to be sold at auction

Still pictures are great, but im still waiting for the Buzz death bed confession.......

It'll come, whether its admitting a hoax, or admitting seeing something,

Something will come, yee'all see.

a reply to: scubagravy

I would love to hear a very loud and sweary recording aimed at his detractors. "I. Went. To. The. F******. Moon. You. Mother. F****." Followed by teeth gnashing.

Or, "It was huge and all lit up like a car at the drive-in. These beings just stood there and watched. We felt frozen and time seemed to leap forward...they were gone." Nobody would believe an old man. Sad, but true.

a reply to: Kandinsky

i hear you, so really, on ones death bed , there is nothing really stopping anyone. Just to check though, the moon landing had nothing to do with the Clintons did it ?

I take it you don't want this thread to just dissolve into a history of glass discussion?

a reply to: scubagravy

The Chinese are next in line to drop boots up there. It's the one time when I pray for human pettiness. What else will make governments put their hands in their pockets fund their space agencies??

Cock blocking the Chinese could give us all real progress lol.

originally posted by: Cauliflower
I take it you don't want this thread to just dissolve into a history of glass discussion?

I was hoping for a collegiate appreciation of human endeavour and the wonder of space exploration. Maybe some discussion on the best objects in the auction? It's ATS and anything can happen.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Well if you want Human Pettiness..... nows the time Dinsky, era of the Snowflake

the Chinese hate sharing, hence the interweb shun.

a reply to: scubagravy

It's not anyone *wants* the pettiness, but it's propelled the space race in the past. In part that is.

Have you checked the links? Anything there you'd want hanging on the wall at home??

a reply to: Kandinsky

Just imagine being the photographer developing it just thinking Wow!.
I would have any of them on my wall but a lotto win is needed.
One of my most prized possessions is my 4 billion year old Pallasite.

a reply to: Kandinsky

I imagine collectors will descend on this auction like flies attracted to excrement. The chance to own an original (I cannot view your links as my data-cap is active but I am assuming these are original) piece of space-exploration history is something that probably does not present itself to the bidding public very often.



PS I doubt I could afford any, but can someone post a few estimated prices?

a reply to: LightSpeedDriver

The main moon pic is around 4 to 5k in bucks. I think they will go for more.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Anything there you'd want hanging on the wall at home??

I scrap computers. Love to take this thing apart...

Contained inside an all metal outer case with interior gold-plated electronics having a total weight of 54 pounds.

Shuttle "CPU"

originally posted by: scubagravy
a reply to: Kandinsky

i hear you, so really, on ones death bed , there is nothing really stopping anyone. Just to check though, the moon landing had nothing to do with the Clintons did it ?

Yes, yes it did. Getting humanity away from their brand of evil and those like them.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: scubagravy



Have you checked the links? Anything there you'd want hanging on the wall at home??

lol, My wife is a Macrame artistic ninja, we have no wall space......

i want to believe.

....

originally posted by: Illumimasontruth

originally posted by: scubagravy
a reply to: Kandinsky

i hear you, so really, on ones death bed , there is nothing really stopping anyone. Just to check though, the moon landing had nothing to do with the Clintons did it ?

Yes, yes it did. Getting humanity away from their brand of evil and those like them.

Have you at all researched Clintons parents? i have, take particular attention to their aunty Polly, hard to find , but when you do......

a reply to: intrptr

That junk-looking thing caught my eye too. It wouldn't get a second look anywhere else. Have you an idea what the original cost of production would have been? I imagine it cost more then than today.

a reply to: LightSpeedDriver

Prices are high for most of us. It's not like $2000 is beyond reach, it's the fact that a hundred other things would come first, right? Bills, holidays etc. Several items are expected to get over $10k. Some of the items are attractive and such a pity you're stuck under a data cap.

a reply to: testingtesting

Pallasite looks amazing and no wonder you treasure it.

Any one of the Moon shots would be fine conversation pieces. We should have an ATS whiparound and buy one of the Mars mosaics! 16 prints in one of them.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Have you an idea what the original cost of production would have been? I imagine it cost more then than today.

Not only gynormous cost but primitive architecture for a "CPU", comparatively speaking. And it weighed 54 pounds. At ten thousand dollars per pound to lift something to orbit? According to the descriptive in OP link they had five of these aboard the Space shuttle...

a reply to: Kandinsky

i want some of the models of various vehicles - when i say some - i mean ALL of them

Only slightly related, but I got intrigued by the Lunar Orbiter image.

I found it was taken on 08/08/67 at 09:05 GMT.

www.lpi.usra.edu...

This image shows the high resolution orbiter image available on the web

www.lpi.usra.edu...

The meteorological satellite data for the day can be found here:

ftp.library.noaa.gov...

And this image shows the weather images, the Orbiter image, and Stellarium's projection of what was on show at the time:



Higher res version here: imgur.com...

Arrows point to the same weather systems.

I'm hoping for a lottery win

a reply to: Kandinsky

Awesome!


My grandparents worked for NASA and gave me several poster sized images of Saturn from the first major Saturn flyby. I wonder if they're worth anything?