Featured Image Credit: Heritage Space/Heritage Images via Getty Images
Topics: Nasa, Space, Social Media, Technology
Britt Jones
Topics: Nasa, Space, Social Media, Technology
A digital artist has enhanced one of the most famous images on Earth - the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
We’ve all heard about the infamous mission which saw Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong take the first ever steps on the Moon's surface.
You’ve all probably seen the images too, but never with this much detail.
Thanks to visual effects artist, Michael Ranger, we’ve all been able to get a look at more of the Moon and see what it would have looked like to the NASA astronauts.
Advert
Ranger decided to ‘unwrap’ the reflection in Aldrin’s helmet visor, which shows a 360-degree panoramic view of the Moon as the pair took their steps around the planet.
Armstrong originally took the image during the first Moon landing in 1969, but technology wasn’t exactly on par with what we have these days.
So, it’s a little grainy and unclear.
However, when Ranger realised that Aldrin’s visor acted like a reflective mirror, he used digital tools to correct the distortions, enhance sharpness, and then expand the frame to create clear panoramic view.
He also used a super high quality version of the image to create his version, making it crystal clear.
Ranger told PetaPixel: "The visors of the spacesuits are coated with gold, so I colour-corrected the gold out of it using the full photo as a color reference to the real-world colours.”
What you can see in the images is the clearest quality of the Moon’s surface, Armstrong standing next to the Lunar Module Eagle spacecraft, him holding his Hasselblad camera and even Earth in the distance.
Of course, when Ranger shared his creation on Reddit, people were hooked.
Commenters were quick to point out his talent, with one person writing: "This is actually amazing. Super unique idea I can’t believe I’ve never seen before."
A second shared: "Well damn. You just made it possible for people to live the moment. Thank you!"
Someone else wrote: "Wow, that’s so cool to just discover another angle of the famous moon landing."
While another commented: "This is great. I genuinely think you have done something of historical interest here, recreating what it felt like to stand there at that time using real data. Museums should take note."
For Ranger, this is something he hopes to inspire others.
He said to the publication: "To me, real things are endlessly exciting.
"People really walked up there on that dusty world, insanely far away. It’s crazy that the way it looks on the surface of the Moon hasn’t changed, with the exception of some craters, for an unimaginable amount of time."
Ranger continues to create fantastic images and regularly posts them to his Instagram account, @therealmichaelranger.
He creates a lot of digital art, some which are gothic, others that are pretty scary.
But the thing they all have in common? They’re all amazing.