Happy Anniversary, Apollo 11!

Wow!

I’ve spent the last few weeks demonstrating some of the joys of my school’s new interactive whiteboard (IWB), and browsing on Google Earth has been addictive for most of the school’s population.

But, in similar vein, NASA has just released some very cool pictures from their Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (or LRO), which has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites, just in time for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. “The pictures show the Apollo missions’ lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon’s surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules’ locations evident.”

Apollo 11

The online comments added by moon hoax conspiracy theorists are hilarious.

I really liked the appended comment from a NASA Moderator: “This is just the first glimpse of many more images to come. When we’re in the operational orbit of only 31 miles, resolution should be two to three times better, and we should be able to get the right lighting conditions to identify the rovers.”

All images credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University.

Boy, sitting in the school hall watching a fuzzy black and white television in 1969 (Year 5) at Arncliffe Primary School seems sooooooo long ago, but it also seems like it was only yesterday. It’s frustrating we are currently on vacation and unable to make use of the anniversary with students this week.

Apollo 14

Also worth checking out: The Moon in Google Earth

5 thoughts on “Happy Anniversary, Apollo 11!

  1. Hi Ian,
    it brings back many memories of this historic occasion. I too have felt a little frustrated that we could not celebrate this event because of the hols. I might put together a display for the first week back, even though a little belated.
    I was in 3rd form at St Ursula’s College Kingsgrove back then.
    Anne

  2. Here I am still in Kingsgrove 40 years later and preparing for Term 3. I was also at SUC Kingsgrove but in 2nd form and I remember being sent home from school to watch it at home,
    Anne

  3. Being in Year 5, we were stuck in the back of the assembly hall to see the (very fuzzy) b/w broadcast. It was a few months before it was discovered I needed glasses, but when I caught a repeat of the walk a few years later, the images were still fuzzy!

  4. My memories are not visual as we had no TV in South Africa back then. We listened huddled around a small transistor radio to hear all about it – still a very memorable moment of history.

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