On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon, marking the moment that he stepped out of the lunar module onto the moon's surface by saying, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Millions of people on earth watched live as the events unfolded on the moon some 238,855 miles away.
It was one of the most significant moments in human history. And it was documented with a variety of photographs and films so that those of us that weren't around to see it in 1969 could enjoy the incredible achievements of Armstrong and his fellow astronauts in Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
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To commemorate the 49th anniversary of the event, NASA released some incredibly detailed and breathtaking Apollo 11 photos, some of which haven't been seen for years.
The photos are part of the Project Apollo Archive, a storehouse of thousands of images from all of the Apollo missions first collated by NASA network administrator Kipp Teague back in 1999.
As you can see, the images, which were taken on Hasselblad medium-format film cameras, are superbly detailed and provide a crisp, clear view of the astronauts' activities during their mission.
In fact, if you zoom in on the photos, you can see the men reflected in each others' visors. Grit and grain were not problems with these cameras!
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These photos from the moon document virtually every aspect of Apollo 11, from the footprints the astronauts left behind on the lunar surface to planting the American flag on the moon.
Also included are candid shots of the men in the spacecraft as well as a gorgeous photo of the earth rising above the moon's horizon.
To say that these photos are breathtaking is perhaps the understatement of the century.
Even though photography wasn't the primary job of the Apollo 11 astronauts, I'd say that they did an impressive job of documenting what they were doing.
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The photos are actually 1800 DPI high-resolution scans of the original negatives.
In many cases, the scans were done at the Johnson Space Center in Texas way back in 2005.
And if you can believe it, many of the color images are totally unprocessed. Impressive, right?
If you ever find yourself down on yourself because photography is so hard, just remember that these guys were taking awesome photos while exploring the moon.
If they can take beautiful images in a low-gravity environment after having spent nearly 76 hours in a tiny spacecraft to get to the moon, you can take beautiful images right here on earth!
To see more Apollo 11 photos and other amazing space photos, click here.
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Via Express