Astrophotography and the Zeitgeist
Detail from Apollo 8: "Earthrise." Image courtesy of NASA.
In December 1968, American nuclear engineer William Anders was 238,900 miles from home, aboard Apollo 8, the first crewed spacecraft to reach and orbit the moon.
Anders had been tasked with documenting geology and future landing sites on the moon’s surface. But when, on Christmas Eve, he caught his first glimpse of Earth from afar, the sight compelled the astronaut to momentarily abandon the mission’s rigid photography schedule.
“Hand me that roll of color, quick, would you?” he asked fellow crew member James Lovell. His camera loaded, he aimed his lens toward that tiny globe, his home. From up there, it was as alien and as intimate as an exposed beating heart.
The result is Earthrise, the most famous astrophoto in history and one of the world’s most reproduced images: Earth, in color, for the first time. Partially obscured in shadow, our white and blue sphere ascends from infinite pitch blackness,
