U.S. Astronaut Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 Hasselblad 70mm lunar mission camera.
Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin used this camera for the Apollo 11 mission.

When this Hasselblad 70mm camera was acquired at auction on 18 October 2007 it was with the understanding that it was an Apollo 11 Mission camera that was used on the Moon.

The consignor, Jack Naylor (1919-2007) was a WWII aviator, mechanical engineer and entrepreneur who pioneered the automotive thermostat, and later used his success to amassed a tremendous collection of cameras, images, photographic technology, and associated ephemera. The Naylor Collection, was according to the Smithsonian Institution (SI), "indisputably the most comprehensive . . . in the world." Naylor identified this camera as the one used to photograph astronauts Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface.

Since 2007 more information has become available about the actual photographic equipment carried in the Apollo missions. At one point it was even thought that all of the Lunar Module (LM) surface cameras had been left behind in order to save on weight to return a maximum amount of lunar soil and rock samples, and that only the Command Module (CM) camera returned to Earth. But, according to the SI's Air and Space Museum, it is now known that not all Apollo LM cameras were left on the moon.

The Apollo 11 Press Kit, page 79 lists the following, "Camera equipment carried on Apollo 11 consists of one 70mm Hasselblad electric camera stowed aboard the command module, two Hasselblad 7Omm lunar surface superwide angle cameras stowed aboard the LM…" Accordingly, more research is needed to determine if this is an Apollo 11 LM camera, the Apollo 11 CM camera or an Apollo 11 training camera used on Earth.

Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the moon. The first steps taken by humans on another planetary body were those of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969. The astronauts also returned to Earth the first samples direct from another planetary body. Apollo 11 achieved its primary missions, to perform a lunar landing and return safely to Earth. But in doing so it paved the way for a new age of lunar exploration.

(See ZFC 3190 for the lunar photo.)


Provenance:
• NASA, Apollo 11 Lunar Mission, 1969.
• Used by Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong.
• Acquired by Jack Naylor from Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Astronaut.
• Displayed on the private collection of Jack Naylor of Boston, MA, 1992.
• Sold via Guernsey's Auctions of New York City, to the Zaricor Flag Collection in 2007.

Sources:



NASA, Press Kit, Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission, Washington, D.C., National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1969.

Lunar and Planetary Institute, Apollo 11 Mission, 30 November 2015, from:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/photography/

NASA, Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo, 30 November 2015, from:
http://history.nasa.gov/apollo_photo.html

NASA, APOLLO-11 HASSELBLAD CAMERAS, 30 November 2105, from:
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11-hass.html

Apollo 11, Wikipedia, 20 November 2011, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection