47 Years Ago

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon - 21 July 1969
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on the Moon – 21 July 1969

This is a slightly different view of an iconic picture – here’s why it may look a little different from the view to which we have become accustomed.

This is the actual photograph as exposed on the moon by Armstrong. He held the camera slightly rotated so that the camera frame did not include the top of Aldrin’s portable life support system (“backpack”). A communications antenna mounted on top of the backpack is also cut off in this picture. When the image was released to the public, it was rotated clockwise to restore the astronaut to vertical for a more harmonious composition, and a black area was added above his head to recreate the missing black lunar “sky”. The edited version is the one most commonly reproduced and known to the public, but the original version, above, is the authentic exposure.   (NASA / Wikipedia)