Michael Collins Signing
June 24, 2005

The autograph of Michael Collins, 74, is a premium item. As a member of the first moonlanding mission, Apollo 11, his rare signature is in great demand. Crewmate Buzz Aldrin is at least accessable. General Collins lives in a remote community and refuses all mail from collectors or anyone wanting a piece of his time.

Collins was the first director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and has authored four books. He is considered the best ex-astronaut author, not using any ghost writers or assistant authors. He is retired now, and unlike other astronauts, rarely makes appearances, award ceremonies or reunions, preferring to relax or fish near his Florida home. He is still happily married to his wife of 46 years, Pat.

SIGNING REPORT

Michael Collins was at Novaspace for his second visit on June 24, 2005. The atmosphere was much more relaxed than last year, since both sides knew what to expect from one another. Mike arrived carrying a green duffel bag, shook the crew’s hands and amazingly remembered everyone's name. Appropriately, he said he sat next to a Delta pilot on the trip out.

Much of the talk this time had to do with his home, lifestyle, and his watercolors. The subject of his watercolors was just a brief aside last year, but since then we’ve sold over a hundred of them at ASTRO AUCTION. He continues to improve from detached hobbyist to more serious painter, and has shown the most improvement in his aircraft, which he loves to paint most of all (that and his famous fish.)

Mike’s either fishing, running, cooking or painting. He has a remarkable boat; a catamaran-style craft with a pair of pontoons that’s entirely human-powered, with a Nordic-track kind of gizmo that powers the propeller with arm action, pedals, or both. Steering is accomplished by leaning, which turns the rudders. He sketched it for us at the ouset of his arrival. Between fishing and running, he remains trim, lean, tanned, and in remarkable shape for a man who turns 75 in October.

We had a brief critique session of some of his works still here, unsold or unseen yet. (Some more arrived after he left.)

Mike recently bought a Macintosh computer, a high-megapixel digital camera and an expensive printer to facilitate his art, especially his many-layered fish composite photos, which are a source of wonderment to those who see them in Florida. Mike asked Randy, our computer guy, for advice on networking his computer with Pat's, and on using WebTV to access Astro Auction which he follows closely. Mike still uses his WebTV for internet access.

Mike said, "Put me to work!," so we began by signing books, which made up nearly a fourth of items sent in. Asked if he had another book in him to write. He said no, that was another career, another life.

Although left-handed, he kept his hand from smearing his signature as he went along. There were several Apollo 11 "completion" items where his was the final signature of the three. He mentioned he doesn’t sign on the flag, and on one WSS photo managed to put an "L" (from Collins) on each side of the flag corner, without actually touching it.

Our daughter Kelsey gladly went home to get the video camera, and we shot some video of Mike signing towards the end of the day. Some clips of this video footage will appear on this page in the near future.

When we had finished the signing that evening, we went to dinner with Mike and the crew to our favorite little Mexican restaurant. Mike had his usual Margarita Grande, and over salsa and chips, we waited for our dinners with spirited conversation.Somehow, the conversation turned to one of Lisa’s dogs getting hit by a litigious man who sued them for damaging his car. Mike mentioned that one of his favorite hounds was killed by another Apollo astronaut in his sports car.

He also mentioned an interesting tidbit: When the Apollo 11 crew was on world tour shortly after the flight, they signed a lot of Apollo 11 crew photos. Some, he said, while they were nearly asleep. A member of their entourage became very skilled at forging all three signatures, and he signed some of them in lieu of the crew.

After dinner that night. we took Mike to his hotel and picked him up very early in the morning for his flight home. At the crack of dawn the fisherman was waiting by the curb, wide awake and chatty. Mike and Pat are going on vacation soon to the coast of Maine, and promises a bunch of new watercolors from those sights.

Mike is easily our Most Favored Astronaut. He has the keenest sense of humor, and keeps us in stitches with his homespun humor and witty quips. After a somewhat tentative start last year, he has become a big fan of Novaspace, and we chat on the phone a couple of times a week. He (and Gene Cernan) were instrumental in convincing John Young we were the real deal. He has Neil Armstrong down for visits occasionally, and if the conversation should turn to signing autographs, we can trust a good word from Mike.

See photos and some video clips of signing.