A critical celestial navigational device used inside the Lunar Module bearing traces of lunar dust. This is a post-landing, 8-inch diameter, circular star chart. All major stars and constellations visible from the Taurus-Littrow landing site are plotted underneath a rotating translucent position locator. The locator has six concentric circular plots, sixty degrees apart, that correspond to position locators set for the Alignment Optical Telescope inside the Lunar Module. The Velcro patch on the reverse shows traces of lunar dust.
“In some ways, when we voyaged to the moon, we were not unlike ancient mariners of the past. The stars were not only to light our way, but were used to guide us to our destination. We had onboard a sextant and telescope similar to what has been used for thousands of years but to make them useful we had to know what the heavens looked like, where the stars were, be able to recognize them and tell our computer through the sextant exactly what stars we were tracking. As a quick reference, we took star charts.. and those star charts of particular importance were the ones we carried to the lunar surface. Our first concern after landing would be to prepare for an immediate lift off in case of emergency. In order to assure that our lift off be successful so that we could subsequently rendezvous with our Command Module, we had to be absolutely sure of our Lunar Module’s position and orientation on the Lunar surface.”
— Eugene Cernan, Commander Apollo XVII in accompanying signed letter
When the Star Charts for Apollo were designed, three stars’ names were made up by Gus Ivan Grissom as a tribute to his fellow Apollo 1 crew members. Star number 3 was named “NAVI,” which is Grissom’s middle name spelled backwards. Star number 17 was named “REGOR,” which is Roger (Chaffee) spelled backwards. Star number 20 was named “DNOCES,” which is Second (Ed White II) spelled backwards. After the tragic deaths of the Apollo 1 crew in a training accident, NASA honored the men by maintaining the names on all of the Star Charts.
15×32″ in frame (x22″ when closed)
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From “Mooncollector” Jim Ruddy lifetime collection, When Jim turned 82 and his health was failing, he wanted to bundle his collection of lunar surface artifacts together in a single sale to someone who would care for them, and so he contacted me. I agreed to procure the collection and spent some time with him discussing each artifact at his home in Palm Springs. He was meticulous and carefully framed each precious treasure. Soon after I added this to the FV space collection in 2015, he passed away.
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