NASA re-creates iconic Apollo 8 'Earthrise' 45 years later

cliveh

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Fantastic. Thanks for the link. It's the stuff dreams are made of.
 

Ken Nadvornick

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For me, this was the single most devastatingly memorable photograph of the entire Apollo program. I am in awe of it still.

The only other NASA photo that has stunned me to the same degree, and continues to clamp me down hard into complete silence every time I look at it, is The Pale Blue Dot.

I cannot tell you the number of hours I have stared silently at that single 1/8.3th pixel after having reread Carl's moving description.

Ken
 
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bdial

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Very cool.
Sometimes a long lens is just the thing for that great landscape shot
 

Trail Images

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Outstanding !!

And the film was ?

Update:
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. (According to Wikipedia)
 
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cliveh

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In terms of the first lunar landing, I have always been fascinated by Michael Collins who piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit until Armstrong and Aldrin returned to it just under a day later for the trip back to Earth. To orbit the moon, alone, removed from civilisation by the mass of the moon and as far away from earth as possible for any human being at the time must be one hell of an experience. To then emerge from the dark side of the moon and see the earth, wow.
 

MartinP

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The film magazine might have been C-368, but the film inside was Ektachrome wasn't it? I can't remember what speed or version though. Some Googling required. . . 64asa apparently, but a special emulsion. The Hassy mag was 70mm, not 220, of course.

I was a very young boy (in UK) at the time and this famous photograph was part of a photo-poster special offer, based on collecting food-can labels and sending them in, via school. Along with umpteen thousand other small boys I suppose, I insisted that the family collect the labels and then I stared at the poster on the wall of my bedroom every day, for years afterwards.

(The video is also on YouTube....)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE-vOscpiNc
 
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Trail Images

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Update:
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. (According to Wikipedia)
 

Photo Engineer

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The film was coated on extra thin Estar support so more film could be fit into one back and thus more exposures per unit weight. The Ektachrome film was processed by Kodak and then internegatives were made. Those were printed on 16x20 Ektacolor 70 paper processed in a junior Calumet basket processor.

The Ektacolor 70 was still in prototype then so we used a special run. I personally made the prints and processed them. A team of us did the dry mounting.

PE
 

Ken Nadvornick

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As I said, the BEST photograph ever to come out of NASA. I was 14-years-old. Forty-five years later and it still stops me stone cold every time I see it. Mere words of description are woefully insufficient.

Yeah, it made that big of a humbling impression...



Ken
 

dasBlute

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Allow us a moment, but to bask in your glow; I'm a NASA guy and I know it takes a cast of thousands, thanks for being there when we needed it

-Tim
 

Newt_on_Swings

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Great video, i love how they edited it to bring together video, still shots, and voice recordings to help explain this iconic image. Must have been tiny shooting it with a peep sight.

PE, how was handling that film? Until you made the internegs, i bet it must have been nail bitting.
 

Photo Engineer

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Having worked at the Cape and at EK, I know that there is a cast of thousands to get a bird off the ground. No one man can do it alone. Making a pretty print is one of the smallest and most humble of those tasks, especially when compared to those who must face that ride up, and the vacuum.

All I have are a few pretty pix and awe at their achievement. They have the real memories.

PE
 

Truzi

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Considering how famous the prints are, I'd think they'd have offered you a ride in thanks.
 

Tom1956

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This was Christmas 1968. Christmas Eve, exactly. I was 11 years old (almost 12). I glued myself to the TV set the whole time, absolutely in awe. I remember at that time, I had the concept of the number of people who it must have taken to do this. This was the year I got the Concord F-20 tape recorder. And I'm sure another couple rolls of KX126-20 for my Instamatic. But Apollo 8 was the neatest part. I'm glad I got to live through this. And to be sure, these were Kodak's finest hours to date.
 

Poisson Du Jour

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I was probably coming to grips as a 7-year old with Dad's Box Brownie at the time. Gosh, it is a long time ago...
That defining picture made earth look singularly small and insignificant. Of all the technology available today, here on earth, zooming around the cosmos or treading the martian dust on Mars, no image has been so profound and inspirational in defining a moment in time far, far away.
 

TheToadMen

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BTW: the colour image by William Anders is the famous one, but the first shot was made on B&W film by Frank Borman.

(first shot in B&W) (later shot "Earthrise" in colour)
 

Ken Nadvornick

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TheToadMen said:
BTW: the colour image by William Anders is the famous one, but the first shot was made on B&W film by Frank Borman.
Click to expand...

The black-and-white one looks noticeably sharper. How so? How much more "infinity" can you be than that??



Ken
 
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