Earthrise 1: Historic Image Remastered
"Oh my God! Look at that picture over there!
Here's the Earth coming up. Wow is that pretty!"
Soon after
that pronouncement, 50 years ago today,
one of the most famous images ever taken
was snapped from the orbit of
the Moon.
Now known as
"Earthrise",
the iconic image shows the Earth rising above the limb of the Moon, as
taken by the crew of
Apollo 8.
But the well-known
Earthrise image was actually the
second image taken of the
Earth rising above the lunar limb --
it was just the first in color.
With modern digital technology, however,
the real first Earthrise image -- originally in black and white -- has
now been remastered to have the combined resolution and color of the
first
three
images.
Behold! The
featured image
is a close-up of the picture that Apollo 8 astronaut
Bill Anders was
talking about.
Thanks to modern technology and
human ingenuity,
now we can all see it.
(Historical note: A
different historic black & white image of the Earth setting behind the lunar limb was taken by the robotic
Lunar Orbiter 1 two years earlier.)