A cache of more than 8,400 high-resolution photographs taken
by Apollo astronauts during trips to the moon is now available for viewing and
download. Kipp Teague, who created the massive repository of images for Project Apollo Archive in 1999,
recently uploaded new, unprocessed versions of original NASA photo scans to the
image sharing service Flickr.
Teague says every photo taken on the lunar surface by
astronauts with their chest-mounted Hasselblad cameras is included in the
collection, along with numerous other Hasselblad photos shot from Earth and
lunar orbit, as well as during the journey between the two
Teague, an
information technology director from Virginia, has been working with
Apollo imagery for more than 15 years. His Project Apollo Archive is a
supplement to Eric Jones’ Apollo Lunar Surface Journal,
which offers a detailed account of every Apollo lunar mission.
"Around 2004, Johnson Space Center began re-scanning the
original Apollo Hasseelblad camera film magazines, and Eric Jones and I began
obtaining TIFF (uncompressed, high-resolution) versions of these new scans on
DVD," he said. "These images were processed for inclusion on our
websites, including adjusting color and brightness levels, and reducing the
images in size to about 1000 dpi (dots per inch) for the high-resolution
versions."
Teague said that over the years, he has received numerous questions
about the images, which prompted him to reprocess the archive in unedited,
higher resolution. The new images are 1800 dots per inch.
Unlike the images included in the Project Apollo Archive and
the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, the new Flickr set has not been processed. Washed-out
Earth limbs and blurry
astronaut faces sit
side-by-side stunning lunar
vistas and iconic
moonwalking photos. Browsing the entire set takes on the feeling of
looking through an old family photo album.
The Flickr gallery currently includes only the photography
from the original Johnson Space Center scans that Teague received, meaning you
won't see any high-resolution images from, say, Apollo 8 or 13—yet.
You can view the album here