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Camera, Leica, Spectrographic, 35mm, Glenn, Friendship 7

Leica

With this camera, a Leica 1g model, astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr.,carried out the first human-operated, astronomical experiment in space during his pioneering mission on February 20, 1962. On his first orbit, in darkness over the Pacific, Glenn took six ultraviolet spectrographic photos of stars in the constellation Orion with this camera. Equipped with a quartz lens and prism to form the star images into spectra, the camera imaged ultraviolet light that is blocked from view on Earth by the atmosphere.

Type

EQUIPMENT-Photographic

Medium

Metal, glass, plastic, velcro

Department

NASM

Institution

National Air and Space Museum

Object number

nasm_A19670197000

Credit

Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration