The earth's bow shock was observed several times at high resolution on February 12, 1969, by an array of Ogo 5 field and plasma instruments under unusual circumstances: the field was at large angle to the local shock normal, the solar wind parameters M and &bgr; were both low enough to ensure laminar shock structures, upstream parameters were verified by complementary measurements by Heos 1, and approximate shock velocities were available by virtue of elapsed time observations obtained with the two satellites. It was found that the low M (≲2.5) and &bgr; (≪1) and high &THgr;nB (>65¿) produced oblique laminar shock profiles as expected from theory, with marginal or vanishing upstream standing whistlers probably damped by acoustic other plasma wave instabilities. The whistler mode appeared to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum. The laminar shock ramp thickness was several hundred kilometers and equal to (2-4) c/&ohgr;pi. Composition of the shock as an accumulation of near-standing waves and an evidently reproducible varying flux pattern was discernible. Electron thermalization occurred early in, or just before, the magnetic ramp, while proton thermalization appeared to occur later in the ramp. Instantaneous shock velocities derived from the standing whistler wavelength were consistent with average velocities derived from the elapsed time estimates and were as high as 200 km/s.