Фотограф из Терра Линды нашел и передал в обсерваторию Гриффита редкую фотографию астронавтов миссии «Аполлон-17»

Terra Linda photographer Norm Levin rediscovered a piece of American aerospace history in a box in his garage earlier this year. While studying journalism as a graduate student at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1970, Levin worked part-time at the Griffith Observatory, where he snapped a photo of five NASA astronauts who visited the observatory for a training session. Two of the astronauts in the photo, Gene Cernan and Ronald Evans, would land on the moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission two years later. “After the five future space travelers completed their sky training session, I asked them to pose in front of the observatory’s three-dimensional 8-foot moon mock-up,” Levin said. “They were on a tight schedule, but I did get that one shot. After making a print, it was put away, both physically and in my deep memory.” He grew interested in astronomy during that time. “During my student years in Los Angeles, I had a keen interest in astronomy, as well as in sharpening my photographic skills. I guess I always was fascinated by lenses and their many applications. On dark Encino nights, I’d roll out my 6-inch reflector telescope to take photos of the moon and brighter planets,” he said. Levin moved to the Bay Area in 1979, settling into his current home in Terra Linda in 1991. Upon a recent visit to the Griffith Observatory, a conversation with observatory director Ed Krupp and museum guide Morgan Harman stirred Levin’s memory of the long-forgotten photo. “I promised Krupp and Morgan to send my photo, if I could find it,” Levin said. “I did, and I did.” The print will be kept in the observatory’s permanent photograph files and has been digitized and placed in the observatory’s digital archive. “We were surprised and very pleased to learn that Norm had a photograph he took of Apollo astronauts at Griffith Observatory and that he would get the print to us,” Krupp said. “The visits by the astronaut teams for star recognition and acquisition training in the planetarium are well known in Griffith Observatory history. “We still have the recliner and the special viewing apparatus they used along with the Zeiss Mark IV planetarium projector that provided the stars — all on display here, along with our previous photograph of one of the teams, in the (Richard and Lois) Gunther Depths of Space (Hall). We had, however, never seen any other photographs, and so Norm’s picture is a revelation and very meaningful.”