APOD: Earthrise 1: Historic Image Remastered (2018 Dec 24)

[APOD Robot]

Earthrise 1: Historic Image Remastered

Explanation: "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.)

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[MottyGlix]

I wish the star background could have been digitally added in. Human eyes are not quite like cameras, and a human eye would have seen some stars in the background. It would feel more like actually being there.

[heehaw]

It is great to this these re-creations (better than 'originals' as it is the experience we want). The most interesting thing to me about all this is that it seems it was totally unexpected. One of those things that are obvious once discovered but never predicted. The human brain is sluggish!

[wildespace]

With the sunlit Moon and Earth in the view, you wouldn't be able to see stars there. Stars are very faint and require dark adaptation.

On the topic of the image processing, this is a simple but great idea to use colour from another image for a black&white one. Surprised it hadn't been done before for this iconic image.

I like playing around with space images myself, so here's my version, made using high-rez scans at Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photograph ... 2570823528

[heehaw]

I wish the star background could have been digitally added in. Human eyes are not quite like cameras, and a human eye would have seen some stars in the background. It would feel more like actually being there.

Try looking at the nearly-full moon from anywhere on Earth (and not nearly as bright as the Earth viewed from the moon). How many stars do you see near the full Moon?

[Fred the Cat]

To be able to see our planet as it would appear from distance in real-time would never bore me.

That is unless the view gets too congested.

[neufer]

I wish the star background could have been digitally added in. Human eyes are not quite like cameras, and a human eye would have seen some stars in the background. It would feel more like actually being there.

Try looking at the nearly-full moon from anywhere on Earth (and not nearly as bright as the Earth viewed from the moon). How many stars do you see near the full Moon?

The Earth shown here is about 20 times as bright as a full Moon.

[neufer]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise

The Earth straddling the limb of the Moon, as seen from above Compton crater (55.3°N 103.8°E) . Taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2015.

---

<<An earthrise that might be witnessed from the surface of the Moon would be quite unlike moonrises on Earth. Because the Moon is tidally locked with the Earth, one side of the Moon always faces toward Earth. Interpretation of this fact would lead one to believe that the Earth's position is fixed on the lunar sky and no earthrises can occur; however, the Moon librates slightly, which causes the Earth to draw a Lissajous figure on the sky. This figure fits inside a rectangle 15°48' wide and 13°20' high (in angular dimensions), while the angular diameter of the Earth as seen from Moon is only about 2°. This means that earthrises are visible near the edge of the Earth-observable surface of the Moon (about 20% of the surface). Since a full libration cycle takes about 27 days, earthrises are very slow, and it takes about 48 hours for Earth to clear its diameter. During the course of the month-long lunar orbit, an observer would additionally witness a succession of "Earth phases", much like the lunar phases seen from Earth. That is what accounts for the half-illuminated globe seen in the photograph.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_(crater)

[Chris Peterson]

I wish the star background could have been digitally added in. Human eyes are not quite like cameras, and a human eye would have seen some stars in the background. It would feel more like actually being there.

Try looking at the nearly-full moon from anywhere on Earth (and not nearly as bright as the Earth viewed from the moon). How many stars do you see near the full Moon?

Well, I see quite a few, right up to within a degree or two of the Moon (and sometimes even transits) when the transparency is good. And the transparency in space is perfect. Our eyes certainly have the dynamic range to see stars when there's something else much brighter in the field. It's not that difficult to see Venus in a sunlit sky. And lunar astronauts reported seeing stars.

No, you'd certainly see stars around the Earth if you were observing this with your eyes. But this seems to be a remastered image, representing what we'd see if it were made with modern camera technology. And that still wouldn't show stars unless some kind of HDR processing was used.

[APODFORIST]

I am also convinced that without any atmospheric influence in space, stars are also visible to the eye next to a bright object.

[E Fish]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise

The Earth straddling the limb of the Moon, as seen from above Compton crater (55.3°N 103.8°E) . Taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2015.

---

<<An earthrise that might be witnessed from the surface of the Moon would be quite unlike moonrises on Earth. Because the Moon is tidally locked with the Earth, one side of the Moon always faces toward Earth. Interpretation of this fact would lead one to believe that the Earth's position is fixed on the lunar sky and no earthrises can occur; however, the Moon librates slightly, which causes the Earth to draw a Lissajous figure on the sky. This figure fits inside a rectangle 15°48' wide and 13°20' high (in angular dimensions), while the angular diameter of the Earth as seen from Moon is only about 2°. This means that earthrises are visible near the edge of the Earth-observable surface of the Moon (about 20% of the surface). Since a full libration cycle takes about 27 days, earthrises are very slow, and it takes about 48 hours for Earth to clear its diameter. During the course of the month-long lunar orbit, an observer would additionally witness a succession of "Earth phases", much like the lunar phases seen from Earth. That is what accounts for the half-illuminated globe seen in the photograph.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_(crater)

That's a gorgeous picture. It almost looks fake, even though I know it's not. Beautiful!

[neufer]

1968 was too far back to simulate but one can
extrapolate back from 2006 to 1987 to ~1968:

Dec.24 Earthrise 1968 + 19x2 years

Dec.24 Earthrise 1968 + 19 years

I wish the star background could have been digitally added in. Human eyes are not quite like cameras, and a human eye would have seen some stars in the background. It would feel more like actually being there.

Try looking at the nearly-full moon from anywhere on Earth (and not nearly as bright as the Earth viewed from the moon). How many stars do you see near the full Moon?

Well, I see quite a few, right up to within a degree or two of the Moon (and sometimes even transits) when the transparency is good. And the transparency in space is perfect. Our eyes certainly have the dynamic range to see stars when there's something else much brighter in the field. It's not that difficult to see Venus in a sunlit sky. And lunar astronauts reported seeing stars.

No, you'd certainly see stars around the Earth if you were observing this with your eyes. But this seems to be a remastered image, representing what we'd see if it were made with modern camera technology. And that still wouldn't show stars unless some kind of HDR processing was used.

[Odysseus]

Kind of an odd question, but do we know the exposure settings and what camera was used for the original photo?

[neufer]

Kind of an odd question, but do we know the exposure settings and what camera was used for the original photo?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise

<<Earthrise is the name popularly given to NASA image AS08-14-2383, taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission, the first human spaceflight mission to orbit the Moon.

Initially, before Anders found a suitable 70 mm color film, mission commander Frank Borman said he took a black-and-white photograph of the scene, with the Earth's terminator touching the horizon (https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apol ... 08-13-2329). The land mass position and cloud patterns in this image are the same as those of the color photograph entitled Earthrise.

The photograph was taken from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968, 16:00 UTC, 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. Immediately prior, Anders had been photographing the lunar surface with a 250 mm lens; the lens was subsequently used for the Earthrise images. An audio recording of the event is available with transcription which allows the event to be followed closely – excerpt:

• Anders: Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming up. Wow, that's pretty.
  
  Borman: Hey, don't take that, it's not scheduled. (joking)
  
  Anders: (laughs) You got a color film, Jim? Hand me that roll of color quick, would you...
  
  Lovell: Oh man, that's great!

There were many images taken at that point. The mission audio tape establishes several photographs were taken, on Borman's orders, with the enthusiastic concurrence of Jim Lovell and Anders. Anders took the first color shot, then Lovell who notes the setting (1/250th of a second at f/11), followed by Anders with another very similar shot (AS08-14-2384).>>

[dlw]

I was curious what the land mass was below the cloud cover. I believe it was the African continent.

[APODFORIST]

Since that time the number of people on earth has doubled.

[Ann]

This APOD is so beautiful and so very moving. It is a stark reminder that the Earth is our wonderful home, where life has come into existence and kept adapting to for at least, I guess, 3 billion years. Probably more.

If we want to move somewhere else, like to Mars, and start terraforming it, we will face an uphill battle, to say the least.

Ann

[wildespace]

1968 was too far back to simulate but one can
extrapolate back from 2006 to 1987 to ~1968:
Earthrise2006.jpgEarthrise1987.jpg

Simulated Stellarium view, as seen from the Moon around the time the first photo was taken:



The brightest star in the photo would then be Regulus (which is the brightest star in Leo, +1.35 mag), but there's no sign of it in any of the scans I looked at. All other stars in that field of view are much dimmer. I doubt they would have seen any of them with the naked eye, having sunlit Moon and Earth in view.

Had this orbit taken place a couple of days later, they would have had Jupiter passing very close to Earth, and that would have made for a pretty sight:

[neufer]

Had this orbit taken place a couple of days later, they would have had Jupiter passing very close to Earth, and that would have made for a pretty sight.

Probably rather similar to a Saturn/Moon pairing (sans rings): https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140716.html

[Chris Peterson]

The brightest star in the photo would then be Regulus (which is the brightest star in Leo, +1.35 mag), but there's no sign of it in any of the scans I looked at. All other stars in that field of view are much dimmer. I doubt they would have seen any of them with the naked eye, having sunlit Moon and Earth in view.

I think most of these stars would be very visible to the naked eye, with neither the Moon nor the Earth providing much interference. Our eyes have very wide dynamic range.

[neufer]

The constellation Leo and the planet Jupiter.

---

The brightest star in the photo would then be Regulus (which is the brightest star in Leo, +1.35 mag), but there's no sign of it in any of the scans I looked at. All other stars in that field of view are much dimmer. I doubt they would have seen any of them with the naked eye, having sunlit Moon and Earth in view.

I think most of these stars would be very visible to the naked eye, with neither the Moon nor the Earth providing much interference. Our eyes have very wide dynamic range.

<<Written English lacks a standard way to mark irony, and several forms of punctuation have been proposed. The percontation point (⸮) , a reversed question mark later referred to as a rhetorical question mark, was proposed by Henry Denham in the 1580s and was used at the end of a question that does not require an answer—a rhetorical question. Its use died out in the 17th century. This character can be represented using a the Arabic question mark (؟).

Irony punctuation is primarily used to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level. A bracketed exclamation point or question mark as well as scare quotes are also sometimes used to express irony or sarcasm.>>

[robcat2075]

Nice reconstruction.

However my admiration was greatly diminished by them being so careless as to cut off the very last note of the music.

Two more seconds of black would have covered it. That is all it would have taken and yet someone either could not be bothered to fix that or never bothered to check their work in the first place.

Yes, it's just a video, yes, it's just a small detail... but that was something that would have been so easy to get right, it is astonishing it wasn't.