This photograph was taken beyond Earth orbit as the Apollo 17 crew was experiencing the extraordinary view of the Blue Marble (the fully illuminated disc of Earth) following the successful translunar injection, docking maneuver and extraction of the LM; and jettison of the expended SIVB third stage. Harrison Schmitt shot it with a 250mm telephoto lens mounted on the Hasselblad 500EL camera a few minutes prior to the famous Blue Marble photograph of the full Earth to show a close up view of the Earth centered over Southern Africa, Madagascar, and the northern tip of Antarctica.

“At first,we were too close to see the full Earth but rapidly Madagascar, then South Africa, then all of Africa dominated the view out of the windows of the Command Module America. The view expanded quickly until the nearly full Earth filled the large hatch window and finally, not even that.” Harrison Schmitt (Jacobs, p. 126).

From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:

004:57:10 Schmitt: And for your reference, at frame 105 I started a few 250-millimeter pictures of the S-IVB. 004:57:24 Overmyer: Roger, Jack. 004:58:21 Cernan: And, Bob, the entire sky, as far as I can make it out through the hatch window, is completely filled with our twinkling flakes. 004:58:47 Overmyer: Roger. We copy that. 004:58:57 Schmitt: I saw a couple particles go by the window awhile back, and it looked a little bit like insulation in this - these particular case - styrofoam insulation, but in flat flakes. 004:59:19 Overmyer: Roger that. 004:59:22 Schmitt: That was right after we separated from the S-IVB. 004:59:28 Overmyer: Roger. 004:59:29 Schmitt: CSM Sep - CSM Sep, Bob. 004:59:33 Overmyer: Roger. Understand. 004:59:37 Cernan: Bob, I know - I know we're not the first to discover this, but we'd like to confirm, from the crew of America, that the world is round. 004:59:52 Overmyer: Roger. That's a good data point. Have you gotten a good look at any of that weather down there on the Antarctic? 005:00:02 Cernan: Well, on Ron's window number 1 - maybe he can tell you a little about it. 005:00:09 Evans: You know, it's real funny there in Antarctica the - You can see the snow, but there isn't any weather at all in it. All of the weather's around it in the water. 005:00:18 Overmyer: Roger. 005:00:20 Schmitt: That's where the moisture is. 005:00:26 Evans: I don't know what to take a picture of. 005:01:12 Evans: I can't see the U.S. at all.