Apollo 17 was the last mission when humans could admire their Home Planet from the vantage point of another world. This fantastic unreleased view of the Earth, centered on Africa, Madagascar and Antarctica was taken soon before lunar orbit insertion by Eugene Cernan through the 250mm telephoto lens as the crew was in the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence about 379,000 km from home and about 28,000 km of the Moon. “With something of the sadness felt as loved ones age, we see the full Earth change to half. [...] The line of night crosses water, land, and cloud, sending its armies of shadows ahead. We see that night, like time itself, masks but does not destroy beauty.” Harrison Schmitt (NASA SP-350, p. 265).

From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken: 082:24:49 Cernan: I'm on frame 163 on the Hasselblad, and I just completed two pictures of the Earth about 5 Minutes ago. And there's one that I did not report late yesterday at about 72:30 GET. A set of two pictures of the Earth. 082:25:38 Parker: Copy that. [...] 082:26:41 Parker: And, Jack, I presume that's magazine November November. 082:26:52 Schmitt: That's affirm, Bob. [...] 082:32:35 Parker: And, Apollo 17; Houston. For your information, we are scrubbing midcourse 4; and you can stay in PTC (Passive Thermal Control) until 83:30, which will be about when you start to get ready for LOI (Lunar Orbit Insertion) anyway. We'll give you a call on that. Comm break. 082:33:32 - This is Apollo Control. Apollo 17 now 14,948 nautical miles [27,684 km] from the Moon. And CapCom Bob Parker just advising the crew that we will not require a midcourse correction prior to Lunar Orbit Insertion. The Flight Dynamics Officer had been reviewing tracking data and establishing another vector, as he calls it, on the trajectory based on that last vector and it appeared that a midcourse correction of something less than a half of foot per second would be required, if performed. And Flight Director Gene Kranz, made the decision to cancel the midcourse correction prior to Lunar Orbit Insertion.