<\/p>\n The camera tech that the Artmis II crew has access to is a far cry from the Hasselblad<\/a> film camera and 250mm lens that Lunar Module Pilot Bill Anders used to capture the iconic Earthrise photo in 1968. The advancement in camera tech would make it seem like Artemis II pilots have a better chance of capturing a 2026 Earthrise on camera, but while the astronauts have a camera advantage, flight logistics will make recreating the photo a challenge.<\/p>\n Article continues below <\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n When astronauts took the Earthrise photo in 1968, it was a spur-of-the-moment shot<\/a> that happened after Anders spotted the Earth coming up as the crew made their way around the far side of the moon. Anders had to swap cameras because he had black-and-white film loaded, but was able to take what\u2019s now an iconic image of the Earth \u201crising\u201d over the surface of the moon.<\/p>\n \n Earthrise, taken in 1968 aboard Apollo 8 (Image credit: NASA)<\/p>\n But Apollo 8 orbited the moon ten times. The Artemis II has only one chance to recreate the image, as Orion is only circling the back side of the moon once. If you count both \u201cearthrise\u201d and \u201cearthset,\u201d the astronauts will have two chances to recreate a similar photo<\/a> towards the beginning and the end of their time on the far side of the moon.<\/p>\n The crew will only have a few minutes<\/a> to catch a similar view of the moon and Earth together, and the four-person crew has to get the shot while working in microgravity in a space that\u2019s only about the size of two minivans<\/a>.<\/p>\n Artemis II will also be farther from the moon than Apollo 8 \u2013 the Artemis II flight path is up to 100 times higher than the 60 miles from the lunar surface that resulted in the original image. Thankfully, the astronauts have an 80-400mm telephoto lens<\/a> aboard, which may help cover some of that distance, as the original image was taken with a 250mm telephoto lens. The difference between a medium format film camera and full-frame D5 and Z9 cameras will also help the lens crop in closer.<\/p>\n Another key difference? The far side of the moon may only be partially lit as the Orion space capsule travels on the far side of the moon, which means the surface of the moon in a recreated photo will likely look different than the well-lit surface in the 1968 image.<\/p>\n \n The Earth looks like a crescent Moon in this shot from Artemis II (Image credit: NASA)<\/p>\n The original Earthrise image isn\u2019t just iconic because of the view of the Earth rising over the moon \u2013 it also helped unify a planet that was divided during the Vietnam War. The world is watching Artemis II in similar political tension \u2013 another iconic photo could serve as a visual reminder of our fragile planet that crosses language barriers.<\/p>\n \n Commander Reid Wiseman looking out the window in the main cabin towards Earth (Image credit: NASA)<\/p>\n \n Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch looks back on Earth from the Orion (Image credit: NASA)<\/p>\n Whether or not Artemis II manages to take a similar shot, the crew has already been sending back iconic images from the historic spaceflight, including a shot of Earth that shows both the northern and southern lights at once<\/a> and some of the first smartphone space photos, as personal smartphones were only recently approved for space flight<\/a>.<\/p>\n You may also like<\/p>\n Browse the best cameras for astrophotography<\/a> or the best lenses for astrophotography<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The astronauts aboard the Artemis II have the opportunity to try to recreate one of the most iconic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-385287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CvK89hoE3xY8khrAdJNaqn.jpg\")
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