A rare lunar relief globe celebrating man reaching the Moon

A rare lunar globe with raised relief, handmade by Arthur Wightman in Cornwall during the excitement of the race to put the first man on the Moon. The globe was carefully cast to show the relief of craters and other features of the surface, brushed with white paint to show debris fields from such events. The American unmanned 'Surveyor' and 'Ranger' landing sites are marked with yellow squares; the Russian unmanned 'Lunar' sites are marked in red; the manned 'Apollo' missions (11 and 12, both 1969) are marked in blue. Whiteman's prototype, which took two years to create, was based on photographs supplied by NASA and was regarded as the most detailed plotting of the Moon available, even including the Dark Side. Whiteman sold three sizes, 8", 12" and this 24" globe, the largest and most impressive, with customers including NASA itself as well as Frank Borman, captain of Apollo 8. A film in the Associated press online archive called 'The Man Who Sold the Moon' made by British Movietone in 1969, gives a fascinating behind the scenes glimpse of his workshop. (See Youtube: https://youtu.be/8n8DQTJAL9I). The 24" played a cameo role in the James Bond movie 'Diamonds are Forever' in 1971. Other examples are scarce: the National Maritime Museum globe collection at Greenwich has a 24" terrestrial relief globe but not the lunar one.