50 years ago.. On July 31, 1964 Ranger 7 took the first pictures at close range of the Moon. These pictures were made by Angenieux 25mm f: 0.95 M1 lenses.

The Ranger program was a series of nine unmanned space missions by the United States in the 1960s, between 1961 and 1965, whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon: large-scale topographic information needed for the Surveyor and Apollo projects. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, transmitting those images to Earth until the spacecraft were destroyed upon impact. A series of mishaps, however, led to the failure of the first six flights.

Ranger 7 was the first US space probe to successfully transmit close images of the lunar surface back to Earth. It was also the first completely successful flight of the Ranger program. Launched on July 28, 1964, Ranger 7 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. Ranger 7 reached the Moon on July 31, 1964.

Ranger 7 photographed its way down to target in a lunar plain, Mare Cognitum, south of the crater Copernicus. The full-scan camera system began transmitting pictures at 1308 UT on July 31, 1964, 17 min 13 sec prior to impact. The partial-scan system initiated transmission of pictures at 1312 UT, 13 min 40 sec prior to impact. The last full-scan transmission occurred between 2.5 and 5 sec before impact, while the last partial-scan picture was taken between

ranger

Ranger 7 – Block 3 Version

0.2 and 0.4 sec before impact and achieved resolution to 0.5 m. Image motion is more severe in the last pictures. The experiment returned 4308 photographs of excellent quality, 1000 times better than from the best telescopes from Earth.

The Ranger program was a series of nine unmanned space missions by the United States in the 1960s, between 1961 and 1965, whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon: large-scale topographic information needed for the Surveyor and Apollo projects. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, transmitting those images to Earth until the spacecraft were destroyed upon impact. A series of mishaps, however, led to the failure of the first six flights.

Ranger 7 was the first US space probe to successfully transmit close images of the lunar surface back to Earth. It was also the first completely successful flight of the Ranger program. Launched on July 28, 1964, Ranger 7 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. Ranger 7 reached the Moon on July 31, 1964.

Rangers 6, 7, 8, and 9 were the so-called Block 3 versions of the Ranger spacecraft. The spacecraft consisted of a hexagonal aluminum frame base 1.5 m across on which was mounted the propulsion and power units, topped by a truncated conical tower which held the TV cameras. Two solar panel wings, each 739 mm wide by 1537 mm long, extended from opposite edges of the base with a full span of 4.6 m, and a pointable high gain dish antenna was hinge mounted at one of the corners of the base away from the solar panels. A cylindrical quasi omnidirectional antenna was seated on top of the conical tower. The overall height of the spacecraft was 3.6 m. The equipment for picture shots was fully redesigned in Rangers 7, 8 and 9.

The spacecraft carried six television Vidicon cameras. The cameras were arranged in two separate chains, or channels, each self-contained with separate power supplies, timers, and transmitters so as to afford the greatest reliability and probability of obtaining high-quality video pictures. No other experiments were carried on the spacecraft. The first channel had two full-scan cameras, one wide angle (25 degree field of view and 25-mm focal length) designated the A-camera and one narrow angle (8.4 degree field of view and 76-mm focal

length) B-camera. The other channel had four partial-scan p-cameras, two narrow angle and two wide angle.

The three cameras positioned on the bottom row were fitted with the Angenieux 25mm f:0.95 M1 lenses ( for wide-angle shots) inside specially modified housings, while the top 3 cameras were fitted with the same B&L 76mm f2 Super-Baltar lenses that were used in the Ranger 6 mission (for narrow-angle shots). The 25 mm Angenieux wide angle lenses were added to the package for Ranger 7 and following Rangers, meaning that basically the three successful and celebrated missions of the ranger program all used the Angenieux lenses, while the earlier six (failed) missions did not.

angenieux

25 M1 lens – circa 1962/1963 – owned by Matthew Leeg, amateur camera collector

 

Ranger 7 photographed its way down to target in a lunar plain, Mare Cognitum, south of the crater Copernicus. The full-scan camera system began transmitting pictures at 1308 UT on July 31, 1964, 17 min 13 sec prior to impact. The partial-scan system initiated transmission of pictures at 1312 UT, 13 min 40 sec prior to impact. The last full-scan transmission occurred between 2.5 and 5 sec before impact, while the last partial-scan picture was taken between
0.2 and 0.4 sec before impact and achieved resolution to 0.5 m. Image motion is more
severe in the last pictures. The experiment returned 4308 photographs of excellent quality, 1000 times better than from the best telescopes from Earth.

Thanks to these experiences which involved huge Research & Development efforts, Angénieux offers today top-quality lenses known for their image quality, their compact weight and size and their fast aperture to the most demanding Directors of cinematography all over the world. Find more details on www.angenieux.com.