NASA

Pale Blue Dot, 2020

Voyager 1's last photograph of Earth, reprocessed by NASA in 2020: a single point of light inside a stray beam scattered within the camera.

Pale Blue Dot Revisited (2020 remaster)
Pale Blue Dot Revisited (2020 remaster)
Pale Blue Dot Revisited (2020 remaster) shown in a limewash reading corner beside an armchair and a floor lamp - scale render at 40 × 40 cm
Pale Blue Dot Revisited (2020 remaster) shown in a graphite plaster wall at night, lit by a console lamp - scale render at 40 × 40 cm
Pale Blue Dot Revisited (2020 remaster) shown in a beamed room with a greige plaster wall above a long oak sideboard - scale render at 40 × 40 cm
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Material
Size (cm)
Frame
Specification
40 × 40 cm
3 mm Aluminium
No Frame
Mount Kit Included
Price
$140

Free shipping - Arrives in 5-7 days

About this work
Pale Blue Dot Revisited (2020 remaster)

On 14 February 1990, 34 minutes before its cameras were shut down for good, Voyager 1 looked back and photographed the Earth from about 6 billion kilometres away. It belonged to a 60-frame sequence the mission called the Family Portrait of the Solar System. Carl Sagan proposed the idea in 1981, and approval took eight years and six requests. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory reprocessed the data and published this version in 2020.

Earth is the single point of light inside the scattered-light band. That band is not a sunbeam in space but light scattered inside the camera optics, because the camera had to be aimed within a few degrees of the Sun, and the ray falling across the planet was chance. The light that made the dot had left Earth five hours and 36 minutes earlier.

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Materials

Metal
The edge of a Madtag aluminium print, a thin bright line, floating clear of a dark wall.

Nothing between you and the picture.

  • The surface for work that wants light.
  • Colour at full strength; blacks hold their depth.
  • Sealed under gloss: no frame, no glazing.
  • 3 mm aluminium composite, floats clear of the wall.
Arrives flat, hanging system included
Paper
A Madtag print on a sheet of matte fine art paper, curling at one corner to show its thickness.

Hahnemühle, not poster paper.

  • When you want the best.
  • Unframed, it is Hahnemühle: photographs on Photo Rag 308, 100% cotton.
  • Painterly work on German Etching 310, mould-made and textured.
  • Over 300 gsm, printed as a pigment giclée.
Arrives rolled in a Madtag tube
Framed
The corner of a Madtag print in a black wood frame, the sheet flush against the moulding behind acrylic, no mount board.

For the wall you want finished.

  • Framed and finished; no trip to a framer.
  • A different print: 200 gsm coated silk, made as one piece.
  • Black, white or natural wood moulding.
  • Acrylic glazing, no mount board: the sheet fills the frame.
Arrives flat in its frame
Canvas
A Madtag print on stretched canvas with a solid black wrapped edge.

Nothing lost around the corner.

  • Occupies the room rather than hanging flat.
  • Stretched over a 40 mm deep FSC wood frame.
  • No glazing; the weave itself takes the light.
  • The picture stops at the face; edges solid black, always.
Arrives stretched and ready to hang
See all four in the room