The First Color Photograph Taken on the Surface of Venus

Vintage chromogenic print on resin coated Kodak paper, 'This paper manufactured by Kodak' watermarks on the verso. The first color photograph taken on the surface of Venus by the Soviet Venera 13 lander. This color panorama was a major achievement for the Soviet space program, marking the first color photograph taken from the surface of Venus. The 252×1024 Pixel image was captured by successively deploying three colors filters and then transmitted at one line every 0.82 seconds to the orbiter and back to Earth. The colors were then calibrated against a multicolored calibration stick (right) with known color values. The lander’s two cameras simultaneously ran a “long program” scanning a full 180° with clear, red, green and blue filters, and a “short program” scanning only a 60° section in color to ensure both a panorama and a full color image could be returned if the lander was destroyed within thirty minutes. This image is from the front camera. In the end the lander survived a full two hours on the surface of Venus, continuously transmitting video and telemetry information home.

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