October 12, 2013
Age Dating a Moon Photo
image from eBay
This photo, found on eBay, is one I've never seen before. It shows Gerard Kuiper apparently giving a TV interview (notice the microphone on his tie and the wire coming from under his jacket) using photographs from his 1960 Photographic Lunar Atlas. The large map on the wall looks like it was made by taping together individual sheets of Schmidt's 1878 atlas. I imagine that Kuiper was saying that the Schmidt map, which was the best one available even in 1960, was now supplanted by the Photographic Lunar Atlas which showed more features, more accurately. The date of the United Press International photo is not given but I suspect it was while Kuiper was still at Yerkes since there were few rooms at the University of Arizona, where he moved in fall 1960, with such lovely molding on the wall and door. I am not a connoisseur of suits and can not use his to judge the age of the photo. Perhaps my friend Alan Binder, who worked as a student for Kuiper at Yerkes - and reads LPOD - can tell us more.
Chuck Wood
Related Links
The lunar crater Kuiper (LRO close up)
Moon-Wiki page lunar crater: Kuiper
Kuiper NAS obituary
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