Most of us are familiar with "Earthrise"

Mar 17, 2015 7:15 AM

bryanew710

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Though credit for the photo is disputed, officially it was shot by Bill Anders during Apollo 8

From Wikipedia:

Earthrise is the name given to NASA image AS8-14-2383, taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned voyage to orbit the Moon.[1][2]

Initially, before Anders found a suitable 70 mm color film, mission commander Frank Borman took a black-and-white photograph[3] of the scene, with the Earth's terminator touching the horizon. The land mass position and cloud patterns in this image are the same as those of the color photograph entitled Earthrise.[4]

The photograph was taken from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968, with a highly modified Hasselblad 500 EL with an electric drive. The camera had a simple sighting ring rather than the standard reflex viewfinder and was loaded with a 70 mm film magazine containing custom Ektachrome film developed by Kodak. An audio recording of the event is available[5] with transcription[6] which allows the event to be followed closely – excerpt:[7]

Anders: Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty.
Borman: Hey, don't take that, it's not scheduled. (joking)
Anders: (laughs) You got a color film, Jim?
Hand me that roll of color quick, would you...
Lovell: Oh man, that's great!

There were many images taken at that point. The mission audio tape establishes several photographs were taken, on Borman's orders, with the enthusiastic concurrence of Lovell and Anders. Anders took the first color shot, then Lovell who notes the setting (1/250th of a second at f/11), followed by Anders with another two at varying exposures.

What always bugs me about it is that the photo is actually off-kilter

The photo is 135deg off of our normal polar alignment, meaning that Antarctica is to the upper left of Earth as seen in the original published photograph.

This photo shows Earth in a more "correct" orientation. I've not seen it confirmed that this is the scene as Anders would've seen it.

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Unless he was lying down, the first picture is how he saw it.

11 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Astronauts do not necessarily orient themselves, or their craft, to keep Earth's axis pointing up. If anything, the first image is upside...

11 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

down from how they saw it, since I believe they kept the CM's larger windows (which were up when seated) facing the lunar surface.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

True. I've never really known which direction they were orbiting, specifically related to Earth's polar orientation.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

They were in an equatorial orbit (see http://imgur.com/mTe8FFA ); which way the CM was facing is a separate matter.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

(Meaning that they should've seen Earth in a similar orientation)

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

So unless the CM was facing the Lunar surface, they'd have been orbiting the equator instead of the poles?

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

Not quite sure what you mean. Their orbit was in the equatorial plane. Which way the craft was pointed is unrelated to that.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Also bear in mind that I'm typing this all pretty late after watching my daughter being born, so brain function's kind of low right now, lol

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I wasn't sure if Earth and the Moon share polar orientation (ie the North pole on both is "up")

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0