Ten Thousand Moon Photos Shot By Apollo Astronauts Uploaded to Flickr

[PatrickJS]

Ten Thousand Moon Photos Shot By Apollo Astronauts Uploaded to Flickr

The Project Apollo Archive has uploaded nearly ten thousand photos taken by Apollo astronauts during lunar missions to the website Flickr for anyone to view and download.

So you think you took a pretty photo of the moon during this week's "super blood moon? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/142611-A-Gallery-of-the-Best-Super-Blood-Moon-Photos-From-Around-the-World#&gid=gallery_4772&pid=1]" Well, I'm really happy for you - but Apollo astronauts had the best moon photos of all time. I mean, they really did - and now each photo taken during those missions has been uploaded to Flickr for you to enjoy.

Thanks to the Project Apollo Archive [http://www.apolloarchive.com/], nearly ten thousand photos have been posted on the popular photo-sharing website. These are high-resolution, unprocessed, and mostly new images. Every shot taken on the lunar surface by the astronauts' chest-mounted Hasselblad cameras included, along with many taken during the flights there and back.

We've picked our faves from the upload and put them in a gallery below. Maybe the best shot is the strangely adorable pic of Eugene Cernan (left) and Ronald Evans (right, upside-down) just "hanging out," presumably taken shortly after Cernan was the last human to walk the lunar surface.

[gallery=4815]

After you've perused our personal picks, help yourself to Flickr's gallery [https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/page1].

It's a bit sad to think of how long it's been since humans set foot on our favorite satellite. Sure, some terrestrial companies may be working on the solar system's <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/142074-Canadian-Company-Thoth-Has-Been-Granted-a-U-S-Patent-for-a-Space-Elevator
">longest selfie stick, but it just won't compare until people can visit in person again, and often. <a href="http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Whalers_on_the_Moon
">Or maybe that'd ruin the appeal?

Source: Planetary Society [http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2015/20151002-apollo-astronaut-photos-flickr.html?referrer=http://feedly.com/i/category/Photography?referrer=http://petapixel.com/2015/10/02/every-moon-photo-shot-by-apollo-astronauts-is-now-on-flickr/]



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[Chaosian]

Wow, 10,000 of them?
"Who on earth would take that much time to fake so many images?"

 

[Hawki]

Wow, 10,000 of them?
"Who on earth would take that much time to fake so many images?"

I was going to make a similar joke, but you beat me to it. Hat's off to you sir.

 

[Saulkar]

Wow, 10,000 of them?
"Who on earth would take that much time to fake so many images?"

Wow, 10,000 of them?
"Who on earth would take that much time to fake so many images?"

I was going to make a similar joke, but you beat me to it. Hat's off to you sir.

My mind has been read and ya das ist gut! I plan on going through them later but I am not used to flickr so I hope it has an easy to use sorting system.

 

[Leg End]

Torrent plz.
But seriously, I'm getting some of these made into posters, first probably that one of Eugene and and Ronald.

 

[sanamia]

Wow, 10,000 of them?
"Who on earth would take that much time to fake so many images?"

And remember this was back in the day of using actual film. Who knows how often they had to change the film to make more photos.
wasn't it some low number like 24 or 36 photos per film? I mean that could be like 400 films that then had to be put in chemical baths upon their return.

 

[TheSYLOH]

Wow, 10,000 of them?
"Who on earth would take that much time to fake so many images?"

Isn't it obvious?
No one on EARTH could do it.
They had to fake the moon landing ON THE MOON!

 

[FFHAuthor]

Delightful, now I have to get ready to start tossing out rebuttals to the conspiracy wack-jobs AGAIN.

Damn it NASA! I've got my hands full already trying to reason with anti-gun nuts and the UFO True Believers now you've gotta throw this back out there! I'm one man with reason, I can't be everywhere at once for you!

 

[llubtoille]

Wow, 10,000 of them?
"Who on earth would take that much time to fake so many images?"

Hmm, A team employed out of high school, working day after day for over 45 years.
They'd be nearing retirement age by now. Coincidence? I think not!

 

[Major_Tom]

Those old medium format Hasselblads still kick any modern DSLR's ass.

And remember this was back in the day of using actual film. Who knows how often they had to change the film to make more photos. wasn't it some low number like 24 or 36 photos per film? I mean that could be like 400 films that then had to be put in chemical baths upon their return.

Hassleblads have interchangeable magazines which can be pre-loaded with film, changing the magazine takes a few seconds and you can change mid-roll. Typical 6x6 medium format 120 film roll has 12 exposures (24 for 220 film), but NASA loaded their magazines with much larger rolls with several hundred exposures.

 

[Clankenbeard]

Those old medium format Hasselblads still kick any modern DSLR's ass.

And remember this was back in the day of using actual film. Who knows how often they had to change the film to make more photos. wasn't it some low number like 24 or 36 photos per film? I mean that could be like 400 films that then had to be put in chemical baths upon their return.

Hassleblads have interchangeable magazines which can be pre-loaded with film, changing the magazine takes a few seconds and you can change mid-roll. Typical 6x6 medium format 120 film roll has 12 exposures (24 for 220 film), but NASA loaded their magazines with much larger rolls with several hundred exposures.

Agreed. The photo quality here is amazing. Especially when you consider the environmental conditions they had to work in--vacuum, temperature extremes, brilliant light, and crazy darkness.

You seem to know quite a bit about these cameras. Did the astronauts have any adjustment capability on these chest cams, or was it just point and shoot? On one camera roll I saw a Kodak board photographed showing the film roll number, their Aperture F/8 and Exposure=1/120 s. I am NOT a photographer. But then on another roll I saw a couple pictures of the plaque on the Apollo 11 lander leg. No big deal. But, it looks like they took a picture and then adjusted the exposure or lighting so that you could read the dark plaque in later photos. Maybe the cameras had an auto-exposure setting?

They were obviously looking at the plaque. They probably figured out it was dark and had another astronaut come stand by to get some reflected light from another spacesuit. But, I'm just curious if the astronauts got ANY adjustment on the camera settings.

 

[Major_Tom]

You seem to know quite a bit about these cameras. Did the astronauts have any adjustment capability on these chest cams, or was it just point and shoot? On one camera roll I saw a Kodak board photographed showing the film roll number, their F-Stop=8 (or was it 1/8?) and Exposure=1/120 s. I am NOT a photographer. But then on another roll I saw a couple pictures of the plaque on the Apollo 11 lander leg. No big deal. But, it looks like they took a picture and then adjusted the exposure or lighting so that you could read the dark plaque in later photos. Maybe the cameras had an auto-exposure setting?

They were obviously looking at the plaque. They probably figured out it was dark and had another astronaut come stand by to get some reflected light from another spacesuit. But, I'm just curious if the astronauts got ANY adjustment on the camera settings.

I'm not a professional photographer either, but I like to consider myself (somewhat optimistically) to be an amateur one. I enjoy shooting older film cameras, and I'm interested in history of photography and history of space exploration so this is a nice overlap.

But to answer your question, they had full control of focus, exposure and aperture, only frame advancing was done automatically. They also carried several films with different sensitivity, and (i think 2) different lenses as well as several filters. In fact, the astronauts, in addition to their regular training, were also extensively trained in photography, and were encouraged to take their cameras with them as much a possible (like on vacations and such) for practice.

If you look at the archive, you will see many photos of the same thing but taken with different settings. This technique is called 'bracketing' and is used when you want to ensure at least some of the photos will be exposed correctly. Also, here is an exposure guide printed on one of the Hasselblad magazines.

Spoiler

Oh, and it's f/8. The larger the number, the smaller the aperture = less light, but greater depth of field (more distance range in focus).

 

[Clankenbeard]

SNIP

Wow. Thank you for that explanation. I had not actually considered a bracketing approach. But I see now that I should have--it makes perfect sense. And I should have assumed that the astronauts would be well-trained photographers by the time they stepped foot on the moon. I had always wondered how they could take such great shots with no visual feedback while doing it.

Now I have the image of the astronauts all hanging out at a 1960's style pool party with their wives and kids. Swimming trunks and chest cameras are not a good mix.

 

[Major_Tom]

Wow. Thank you for that explanation. I had not actually considered a bracketing approach. But I see now that I should have--it makes perfect sense. And I should have assumed that the astronauts would be well-trained photographers by the time they stepped foot on the moon. I had always wondered how they could take such great shots with no visual feedback while doing it.

Now I have the image of the astronauts all hanging out at a 1960's style pool party with their wives and kids. Swimming trunks and chest cameras are not a good mix.

Glad to be of help, feel free to ask anything else. While I couldn't find any home-made photos, I did find this one.

Spoiler: Still looks a bit silly