On 24 November 1966 NASA's Lunar Orbiter 2 probe photographed the 93 km wide Copernicus Crater on the Moon from an altitude of 45 km and a horizontal distance of 207.7 km, effectively looking sideways at the surface of the Moon. This was the first time such a landscape view of the Moon had been seen, and was widely hailed as one of the most iconic images of the century at the time, though it was later overshadowed by images from the Apollo Moon Lander Program.
This image has now been digitally remastered and released by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, which aims to preserve the Lunar Orbiter images for posterity. The versions of the print have a considerably better resolution than the original, allowing details that were not previously visible to be seen.
The newly remastered view of the Copernicus Crater. NASA/LOIRP.
Enhanced details on the new image. NASA/LOIRP.
The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Program has rereleased a number of other iconic images of the Moon recently.
Earthrise, as imaged by Apollo 8 on 24 December 1968. Apollo 8 orbited the moon 10 times with a human crew of three, seven months before the Apollo 11 moon landing. NASA/LOIRP.
Image of the Moon from orbit, taken from the Gemini VII spacecraft on 23 March 1965. NASA/LOIRP.
See also How the Moon got its strange magnetic field, Recent tectonic activity on the moon? Could we mine the moon for titanium? Is the Moon younger than we think? and Volcanoes on the far side of the moon.
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