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Exposing the moon's surface: Equipment that changed space photography

Photographs of the first moon landing were nothing short of artistic masterpieces that redefined imagery with the picture of a footprint

The Hasselblad Data Camera was fitted with a glass Reseau plate, which created cross marks on the images and made it possible to calibrate distances and heights enabling size-ratio analyses of objects on the moon. Photo: NASA
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The Hasselblad Data Camera was fitted with a glass Reseau plate, which created cross marks on the images and made it possible to calibrate distances and heights enabling size-ratio analyses of objects on the moon. Photo: NASA

Rahul Saha New Delhi
Fifty years ago more than 500 million people around the world watched the moon landing and were spellbound by the images brought back to earth from the lunar surface.  Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon was a giant leap for space photography. The images clicked by the crew of Apollo 11 produced the first color photograph of our planet from the moon as well as images of the moon's surface that were never seen before. However, at the beginning of the space programme hardly anyone thought of photographs from space as anything more than a branch of industrial photography.