Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface

Apollo 11 astronauts trained on Earth to take individual photographs in succession in order to create a series of frames that could be assembled into panoramic images. This frame from Aldrin's panorama of the Apollo 11 landing site is the only good picture of mission commander Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface.

Blue Moon

James T. Powers in The blue moon.

Moonscape

To prepare for the Apollo landings, five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft were launched during 1966 and 1967 to gather detailed images of our fair planet's large, natural satellite. Dramatic views returned by the spacecraft cameras included this stark moonscape. The mosaic of the 93 kilometer-wide, or 50 mile-wide impact crater, Copernicus features central peaks rising above the crater floor and rugged crater walls.