If you were stuck somewhere far away from yesterday’s lunar eclipse, here’s some consolation courtesy of NASA. The Scientific Visualization Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center has compiled this two and a half minute video from over a year’s worth of data recorded by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been orbiting the moon at 50 kilometers above its surface for over a year.
The results are pretty spectacular, and might render the pain of missing a chance to watch the moon turn red a little more bearable, especially for all you heartbroken Cancers (we’ll get through this.)
via Wired News
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Sheerly Avni is a San Francisco-based arts and culture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Weekly, Mother Jones, and many other publications. You can follow her on twitter at @sheerly.
NASA site says “LRO will spend at least a year in a low polar orbit approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) above the lunar surface, …”, not “50 feet”.
Thanks so much for the catch, David. Much appreciated.
Sheerly
For dummies who still think astronauts never landed on the moon, why not a telephoto shot of the Rover? It may not convince perpetual doubters, but it would be cool to see.
Since the LRO was orbiting the moon, it must have seen the far side. Why isn’t that included in this video?
Lol that was an animation… wtf