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Fifty-two years after the historic first moon landing, we got a whole new perspective on a classic Apollo-era photo.
Reddit user and visual effects artist Michael Ranger, aka rg1213, chose the iconic photo of Buzz Aldrin taken by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission, and “unwrapped” the lunar sight reflected in the helmet of the ‘astronaut.
The result is a 360-degree panoramic view of the Moon, never seen before.
“What makes this process exciting for me is the fact that it’s real,” Ranger wrote on Reddit. “If I have any idea that something like this is wrong or wrong, my interest in it completely evaporates. It’s great because it’s real!”
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon. (NASA)
The photo in question is an iconic photo, taken in July 1969. Aldrin stands by the leg of the Eagle lunar module, his left arm outstretched. In the reflection of his visor, his shadow stretches out in front of him, the module shines in the harsh, unfiltered sunlight, and Armstrong is standing with the Hasselblad camera held at chest height.
If you look closely you can see the Earth just above the visor.
The Ranger rebuild follows a previous attempt in February 2019 and an earlier version a few days ago that used a lower resolution photo.
“I took this famous image of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, I zoomed in on his visor, and because it’s basically a mirror ball, I was able to ‘unfold’ it on this image. 2D. Then I opened it in the Google Street View app and can see this [Aldrin] seen, “he explained.
The latest version uses the highest resolution image available, taken from the entire Apollo Project archive on Flickr.
(NASA / Michael Ranger aka u / rg1213)
“Using this higher quality photo, I created this unpackaged 360-degree panoramic image, which I opened in a free 360-degree viewer and saved this video with it,” Ranger wrote. “In addition to the higher resolution of the film scan and uncompressed file format, I fine-tuned and color corrected it in Photoshop rather than on my iPhone like the first one which led to better results. “
He also corrected the color of the golden tint of the visor – a measure of protection against solar radiation – and added more space around the edges of the visor for a more realistic depiction of the interior of Aldrin’s helmet, did he declare.
The Apollo 11 mission, launched on July 16, 1969 to land Armstrong and Aldrin on the Moon on July 20, was the first time humanity had set foot on a world that was not Earth. Many photographic and video elements have been preserved and are available in the public domain.
Last year, a film restoration specialist used artificial intelligence to enhance some footage of the Apollo 11 mission, bringing it to 24 frames per second for an incredibly crisp and clear experience of iconic moments from the mission.
We also don’t think Ranger will be the last to attempt this. Based on the comment thread, other Reddit users seem inspired to try their hand at finding hidden sights in the Apollo photographs.
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