The region of the Apollo 11 craters (see below).
Photo by Author.
Recently, we wrote about the “Stars of Apollo 1” and how those astronauts who perished in the fire on Pad 34 were memorialized in the sky by their own hand. This week, we thought we’d draw your attention moonward and bring you next week’s astro-event a few days early to honor the passing of a hero. We’ve wanted to write on the craters named after the Apollo 11 astronauts for some time. Located in the southwestern corner of the Mare Tranquillitatis (The Sea of Tranquility), these three craters named Aldrin, Collins, & Armstrong sit in the general area that Neil Armstrong took his footsteps on the Moon, the first human being to do so on July 20th, 1969. [Read more...]
Astronomy Video of the Week: Apollo 11 in a Minute
Earth from the Moon.
(Image credit: NASA/Apollo 11)
Wanna see something cool? Recently, NASA put its entire archive of Apollo era images – more than 10,000+ and counting – on Flickr. An amazing treasure-trove, space fans have dived in, with amazing results. There are lots of images I’d never seen before, as well. Folks have been cranking out some cool short animations too. The good folks over at the Planetary Society put together one honorable mention: a video montage that depicts the entire Apollo 11 mission from Earth departure, to lunar ops and return in just one minute, using photographs from the mission: [Read more...]