Amateur Photographer – 20 July 2019

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Photo Insight

W

hen Apollo 8
launched from
Kennedy Space
Center on 21
December 1968, the three
astronauts on board - Frank
Borman, William Anders
and James Lovell – had zero
interest in photographing the
Earth from space. Borman, in
particular, wasn’t happy about
having cameras on board, as he
believed that such equipment
might divert the crew from its
mission, which was essentially
to orbit the moon and return
to Earth in one piece. Despite
Borman’s misgivings, room
was found for two Hasselblad
EL cameras, each with a
Planar 80mm f/2.8 lens, a
Sonnar 250mm f/5.6 telephoto
lens, and seven magazines of
70mm fi lm. The spacecraft
also carried a black & white
TV camera and 16mm motion
picture camera, with numerous
accessories. The cameras, fi lm
magazines and lenses had
black anodised surfaces to
eliminate refl ections, and both
Hasselblads were fi tted with
large levers and locks to enable
the crew to operate them
while wearing pressurised
spacesuits and gloves.
The primary purpose of
the recording equipment was
to document the surface of
the moon. NASA felt that it
already knew enough about
Earth and so it stressed the
importance of capturing
unusual sights such as the far
side of our natural satellite up
close. On day four of the
mission (Christmas Eve),
Apollo 8 had completed three

full orbits of the moon, and the

crew was photographing the

ground beneath the spacecraft

to appraise two potential

landing sites. Partway through

the exercise Anders looked out

of window fi ve and caught sight

of the Earth rising over the

moon’s western horizon. The

voice recording he made at the

time illustrates his surprise

and excitement. ‘Oh my God!

Look at that picture over there.

Here’s the Earth coming up.

Wow, that’s pretty!’ At this

point Borman jokingly

suggests that Anders shouldn’t

take the picture because it’s not

scheduled – he may be teasing,

but it illustrates how every

movement, breath and action

was being controlled and

assessed by NASA.

Switching to colour

Thankfully Anders ignores his

colleague and fi res off a few

frames using black & white

fi lm and the 250mm lens.

Consequently, the fi rst shot

of the Earth rising, taken by a

human, is entitled AS08-13-

2329, and is monochrome.

Within seconds Anders realises

that he is on to something and

requests a colour fi lm from

Lovell. The second astronaut

struggles to locate the fi lm and

the three soon fear that they

have missed their opportunity.

Thankfully, as the spacecraft

was slowly rolling, the Earth

became visible again through

two other windows. Now with

a clear view, Anders took one of

the most famous pictures of the

20th century – AS08-14-2383,

otherwise known as ‘Earthrise’

In 1968 three astronauts became

spellbound by the sight of their

home planet. Tracy Calder looks

at the most famous photograph

they brought back to Earth

Earthrise

© WILLIAM ANDERS/GETT Y IMAGES

By William Anders

(seen here). This image shows

the view across Pasteur, a large

lunar crater, and required an

exposure time of 1/250sec at

f/11. (To view the scene as

the crew of Apollo 8 did you

actually need to rotate the

picture anticlockwise by 90°.)

The contrast between this

glorious blue planet and the

grey, inhospitable surface of

the moon is striking, and

shows why Anders’s decision

to switch to colour was a

wise one. The Earth appears

suspended in inky black space,

looking both peaceful and

extremely vulnerable. From

240,000 miles away all borders

and manmade boundaries

became irrelevant. ‘It was the

most beautiful, heart-catching

sight of my life,’ recalled

Borman, ‘raging nationalistic

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