NASA Releases Stunning New High-Resolution Moon/ Earthrise Image- from LRO
"The image is simply stunning," said Noah Petro, Deputy Project Scientist for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The image of the Earth evokes the famous 'Blue Marble' image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17, 43 years ago, which also showed Africa prominently in the picture."
In this composite image we see Earth appear to rise over the lunar horizon from the viewpoint of the spacecraft, with the center of the Earth just off the coast of Liberia (at 4.04 degrees North, 12.44 degrees West). The large tan area in the upper right is the Sahara Desert, and just beyond is Saudi Arabia. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America are visible to the left. On the moon, we get a glimpse of the crater Compton, which is located just beyond the eastern limb of the moon, on the lunar farside.
LRO was launched on June 18, 2009, and has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the moon. LRO experiences 12 earthrises every day; however the spacecraft is almost always busy imaging the lunar surface so only rarely does an opportunity arise such that its camera instrument can capture a view of Earth. Occasionally LRO points off into space to acquire observations of the extremely thin lunar atmosphere and perform instrument calibration measurements. During these movements sometimes Earth (and other planets) pass through the camera's field of view and dramatic images such as the one shown here are acquired.
This image was composed from a series of images taken Oct. 12, when LRO was about 83 miles (134 kilometers) above the moon's farside crater Compton. Capturing an image of the Earth and moon with LRO's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument is a complicated task. First the spacecraft must be rolled to the side (in this case 67 degrees), then the spacecraft slews with the direction of travel to maximize the width of the lunar horizon in LROC's Narrow Angle Camera image. All this takes place while LRO is traveling faster than 3,580 miles per hour (over 1,600 meters per second) relative to the lunar surface below the spacecraft!
The high-resolution Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on LRO takes black-and-white images, while the lower resolution Wide Angle Camera (WAC) takes color images, so you might wonder how we got a high-resolution picture of the Earth in color. Since the spacecraft, Earth, and moon are all in motion, we had to do some special processing to create an image that represents the view of the Earth and moon at one particular time. The final Earth image contains both WAC and NAC information. WAC provides the color, and the NAC provides high-resolution detail.
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/lro-earthrise-2015
= new reply since forum marked as read
Here is the Apollo 8 photo that started the whole thing
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Story
On Christmas Eve, 1968, none of the astronauts aboard Apollo 8 were prepared for the spellbinding moment when they would first see their home planet rise from behind the desolate lunar horizon. The vision of Earth provided them the first spot of color as they floated in the blackness of space, orbiting the lunar surface.
Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Fla., at 7:50 a.m., on Dec. 21, 1968. Nearly three hours later, translunar injection was performed and astronauts Col. Frank Borman, commander; Capt. James A. Lovell, Jr., command module pilot; and Major William A. Anders, lunar module pilot, were on their way to the moon, becoming the first mission to provide humans a roundtrip visit to another celestial body.
Apollo 8 achieved many other firsts, including becoming the first manned mission launched on the Saturn V rocket and from NASA's new Moonport, taking the first pictures of the Earth from deep space by humans and enabling the first live television coverage from the lunar surface. During the months of training preceding the mission, no one thought to condition the crew to encounter the view of Earth from lunar orbit.
Many have seen and admired the "Earthrise" photo as the grandfather of all the modern space images seen today, but how many actually know the history behind Earthrise? In February, Anders visited Johnson Space Center for a BBC documentary interview in which he talked about the Apollo 8 mission, its historical significance, his personal experiences during launch and lunar orbit and how he managed to shoot the unforgettable Earthrise photo. During his visit, Anders also paid a rare visit to the Apollo photo lab to open the storage vault where the negative of the Earth rise photo is kept.
The Earthrise Photo
Anders said after the first two-and-a-half to three orbits, they were going backwards, head down, marveling at the lunar surface, and it wasn't until after they had made a, "collective maneuver to circularize our orbit at 60 nautical miles, that we rolled over, heads up and turned around, going forward, like you would be driving a car around the moon."
They crew was in sunlight and Anders was shooting pictures out of the side of the spacecraft, as this was one of his designated jobs.
"I don't know who said it, maybe all of us said, 'Oh my God. Look at that!'"Anders said. "And up came the Earth. We had had no discussion on the ground, no briefing, no instructions on what to do. I jokingly said, 'well it's not on the flight plan,' and the other two guys were yelling at me to give them cameras. I had the only color camera with a long lens. So I floated a black and white over to Borman. I can't remember what Lovell got. There were all yelling for cameras, and we started snapping away."
"Earthrise" is the name given to a photograph of the Earth taken by Anders during lunar orbit on Dec. 24, 1968. Earthrise became one of the most famous photographs from all of the Apollo missions and one of the most reproduced space photographs of all time. It has been credited for inspiring the beginning of the environmental movement. In Life Magazine's 100 Photographs that Changed the World edition, wilderness photographer Galen Rowell called Earthrise, "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken." Another boost of fame came in 1969 when the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the Apollo 8 mission.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/earthrise.html
The Earthrise is because Apollo 8 was orbiting the Moon. When one is on the Moon, the Earth remains in the same spot on the sky because the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, always showing the same face to Earth.
Just adding a little astronomy to the thread.
Also, that pic is certainly not real. There is no way that the Earth is that large from the Moon. Unless LRO was using a telescope, the Earth would be a lot smaller.
thanks for dragging the post down. with stuff.............
just kidding.
Always a pleasure to see your posts.
...it's earthsight experienced by 'an observer' on LRO
LRO was launched on June 18, 2009, and has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the moon. LRO experiences 12 earthrises every day; however the spacecraft is almost always busy imaging the lunar surface so only rarely does an opportunity arise such that its camera instrument can capture a view of Earth. Occasionally LRO points off into space to acquire observations of the extremely thin lunar atmosphere and perform instrument calibration measurements. During these movements sometimes Earth (and other planets) pass through the camera's field of view and dramatic images such as the one shown here are acquired.
This image was composed from a series of images taken Oct. 12, when LRO was about 83 miles (134 kilometers) above the moon's farside crater Compton. Capturing an image of the Earth and moon with LRO's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument is a complicated task. First the spacecraft must be rolled to the side (in this case 67 degrees), then the spacecraft slews with the direction of travel to maximize the width of the lunar horizon in LROC's Narrow Angle Camera image. All this takes place while LRO is traveling faster than 3,580 miles per hour (over 1,600 meters per second) relative to the lunar surface below the spacecraft!
And, of course, we don't really experience 'sunrise' on Earth:
Although the Sun appears to "rise" from the horizon, it is actually the Earth's motion that causes the Sun to appear. The illusion of a moving Sun results from Earth observers being in a rotating reference frame; this apparent motion is so convincing that most cultures had mythologies and religions built around the geocentric model, which prevailed until astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus first formulated the heliocentric model in the 16th century.[3]
Architect Buckminster Fuller proposed the terms "sunsight" and "sunclipse" to better represent the heliocentric model, though the terms have not entered into common language.
If we're going to be pedantic, let's really be pedantic.
to look at the picture (eg "on a 12 inch screen, your eye should be 9 foot away"
, that would say it's "too large". Maybe you're just too close to your screen? 
One thing we do know from the video NASA shows about constructing the picture - it should be called 'earthset' if anything, since the craft was moving away from the horizon so that the earth sank below it. But somehow, 'earthset' doesn't sound as good as 'earthrise' - a bit pessimistic?
