The Most Comprehensive Map of the Lunar Crater Copernicus

LUNAR ORBITER V, August 1967, Large format vintage silver gelatin mosaic prints (3), image size 520mm x 410mm, sheet size, 610mm x 510mm, mapping the eastern rim of the Copernicus Crater, numbered NASA-LRC V157 H1 to V157 H3

The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of unmanned missions to help with the selection of landing sites for the later Apollo missions, they provided the first photographic maps from a lunar orbit. Taking its name from the great astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) the 93km crater is one of the Moon's most prominent feeatures and is easily visible with binoculars. Formed over 1 billion years ago by an impact from a meteor, the crater features a central complex of peaks surrounded by smooth flats bordered by a crater wall 3.8km high. The Lunar Orbiter photographs were transmitted to Earth as analogue data after on board scanning of the original film into a series of strips. The data was written onto magnetic tape and also to film. The film data was then used to create hand-made mosaic composite images on Earth by layering these strips side by side.