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| Earthrise, 1968 |
The most influential environmental photograph ever taken.
--Galen Rowell, wilderness photographer
We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing was that we discovered the Earth.
--William Anders
Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders job on Christmas Eve, 1968 was to snap pictures of the lunar surface in preparation for the first manned landing sometime the next year, when he noticed this:
Black-and-white film was cheaper and more commonplace in the 1960s, which is why the first picture of the Earth taken in lunar orbit is monochromatic. However, a few rolls of color film were on board in case of a special occasion. Anders figured this was a special enough occasion and beckoned his fellow astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell:
Anders: Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming up. Wow, that's pretty.
Borman: (joking) Hey, don't take that, it's not scheduled.
Anders: (laughs) You got a color film, Jim? Hand me a roll of color, quick, would you?
Lovell: Oh, man, that's great!
And that's how the famous color photo at the top of this post came to be, though Anders, Lowell, and Borman would have seen it from this angle:
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Anders, 90, died yesterday when the plane he was piloting alone plunged into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state.
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| Lovell, Anders, and Borman |
I remember being mesmerized and wowed by that photo in 1968!
ReplyDeleteThat 1960s-early '70s space program was just something special, Mitchell. I pity the young'uns who know it only as history.
DeleteRather amazing photos, colour or black and white. Flying a plane at the age of 90 could be very likely to go wrong, and it came to pass.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, I guess once a pilot, always a pilot, even at the age of 90.
DeleteThe legacy of that photo will live forever, or at least so long as humans still exist on this earth.
ReplyDeleteThat might be until next Tuesday, Debra. JUST JOKING! JUST JOKING! A photo like that should inspire humanity to find some way to make as close to forever as we can possibly get.
DeleteWell at least that first picture proves the bottom is flat... sort of.
ReplyDeleteMike, is there a Half-a-Flat Earth Society I can join?
DeleteThank you for sharing! I'll have to tell my husband this news if he doesn't already know. He witnessed the moon landing when I was just a few months old. :D Be well!
ReplyDeleteDarla, I was seven, and remember my father waking me and my sisters up to come watch the moon landing on TV. Meanwhile, my younger brother had yet to be born!
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