                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2023 July 22

                     Apollo 11: Armstrong's Lunar Selfie
     Image Credit: NASA, Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong; Processing: Michael
                                   Ranger

   Explanation: A photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon taken by
   Neil Armstrong, was digitally reversed to create this lunar selfie.
   Captured in July 1969 following the Apollo 11 moon landing, Armstrong's
   original photograph recorded not only the magnificent desolation of an
   unfamiliar world, but Armstrong himself reflected in Aldrin's curved
   visor. In the unwrapped image, the spherical distortion of the
   reflection in Aldrin's helmet has been reversed. The transformed view
   features Armstrong himself from Aldrin's perspective. Since Armstrong
   took the original picture, today the image represents a fifty-four year
   old lunar selfie. Aldrin's visor reflection in the original image
   appears here on the left. Bright (but distorted) planet Earth hangs in
   the lunar sky above Armstrong's figure, toward the upper right. A
   foil-wrapped leg of the Eagle lander and Aldrin's long shadow
   stretching across the lunar surface are prominently visible. In 2024
   NASA's Artemis II mission will return humans to the Moon.

                    Tomorrow's picture: unexpected clock
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

