Personally, my favorite is the full eclipse shot with Venus in the bottom left of the frame. 👇 What is yours?
Earthrise, taken on December 24, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders
“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth” ~Bill Anders, Apollo 8, December 24, 1968
I was born in early 1969, so, like many of my generation (GenX), my life has been framed by the space race and the cold war. My parents saved a copy of the July 21, 1969 issue of the New York Times with the headline “Men Walk on the Moon” in bold letters across the top. This issue sat stored in my closet next to my toys and is burned into my memory. It was so foundational that you can find an Apollo 11 mission patch sticker on the back of my MacBook.
As NASA moved on to the Shuttle Program, I never expected it would take us most of my lifetime to get back to the moon but cost, lack of a competitor with the fall of the Soviet Union and a couple of tragedies – the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986, and the Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003 – put a pause on any hope of return.
Fast forward to yesterday, April 6, 2026, and we’re back baby! Not a landing. Not yet. But a test flight around the moon. Artemis II has renewed my hope in humanity’s quest for the stars. To top it off, the crew took a series of incredible photographs as they rounded the moon. They are all incredible but the one that brings us all back to that feeling of wonder is the new “Earthrise” shot known as “Earthset.” 👇
art002e009288 (April 6, 2026) – Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface.
The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region.
In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.
Personally, my favorite is the full eclipse shot with Venus in the bottom left of the frame. 👇
What is yours?
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