# Were there any photos of the Milky Way taken from the moon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334 "2016-11-18T16:43:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/1 "2016-11-18T16:43:02Z")
From any of the Apollo moon missions, I do not recall seeing any photos of the Milky Way. I scrolled through the archive, but admittedly did not look at every photo. [https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/albums](https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/albums) I know they were film cameras, but the techniques were available to do long exposure photography, right? Google searches have failed me. ---
**Author:** ![tallcoldone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@tallcoldone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tallcoldone)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/2 "2016-11-18T17:11:55Z")
I don’t have a specific answer, but keep in mind that the astronauts were always on the moon in sunlight. The reflected sunlight would tend to wash out the stars (cue no-moon-landing conspiracy theorists), so a picture of the Milky Way would probably not turn out too well. Also, they were rather preoccupied with the moon, since, that’s why they were there. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/3 "2016-11-18T17:14:06Z")
[Why The Apollo Moon Pictures Have No Stars](http://www.skywise711.com/Skeptic/MoonPics/MoonPics.html) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/4 "2016-11-18T17:14:49Z")
Long exposure times require a tripod or some other means of stabilizing the camera. In a situation where every ounce counts, I doubt that they prioritized bringing one along just so that they could take pictures of something that can be photographed from Earth’s surface or from orbit. The moon itself was brightly sunlit, needing only short exposure times (and was the subject that they were interested in photographing.) Plus, they forgot to paint a copy of the Milky Way on the studio backdrop. ---
**Author:** ![pieceoftheuniverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7993a0/32.png) [@pieceoftheuniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pieceoftheuniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/5 "2016-11-18T17:26:59Z")
If I recall correctly, all six landing sites were on the side of the moon facing Earth. The light from the planet would make it difficult to take a picture of the surrounding stars. I’ve only seen [one picture with a starfield](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Apollo_16_UV_photo_of_Earth_rotated.jpg/220px-Apollo_16_UV_photo_of_Earth_rotated.jpg), and that includes Earth (overexposed). Even that one was, I think, in completely the wrong direction to see the Milky Way. Even if they had been in the right direction, I’m not sure that the camera technology was up to snuff in the 60’s. They could do long exposure times, but even today it takes a reasonably high-end camera set up in just the right way. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/6 "2016-11-18T17:36:06Z")
> [@pieceoftheuniverse](#): > > Even if they had been in the right direction, I’m not sure that the camera technology was up to snuff in the 60’s. They could do long exposure times, but even today it takes a reasonably high-end camera set up in just the right way. You underestimate a [Hasselblad,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasselblad) not your great-grandfather’s pinhole camera. 12 Hasselblads are still on the Moon, so take along some 120 roll film if you go there. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/7 "2016-11-18T17:51:29Z")
[This is the camera](https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/5239hjpg?id=5239) used by Apollo 11 astronauts. It appears this camera had a mechanical shutter with a fixed shutter speed of 1/250 s. Aperture dial goes from F/2.8 to F/22; the instructions say to use 5.6 in shadow and 11 in sun. Anyway, there’s no way you can capture any star with such short exposure time. If it weren’t for the fixed shutter speed, this camera would be perfectly capable of capturing the milky way, if it is carefully shielded from sunlight and stray light from the surroundings and fixed on a tripod (which the Apollo astronauts didn’t have either, as far as I know). ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/8 "2016-11-18T18:26:01Z")
I’m not even sure why they’d have bothered to do so. The picture would look absolutely identical to one taken from earth’s surface. The Moon’s orbit around the earth is about 0.25% of the Earth’s around the sun. So even if you happened to have pictures from the moon six months apart and at full moon time, you’d only get that percentage change in your parallax measurements. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/9 "2016-11-18T18:39:01Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > You underestimate a [Hasselblad,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasselblad) not your great-grandfather’s pinhole camera. 12 Hasselblads are still on the Moon, so take along some **120 roll film** if you go there. 70mm for the moon cameras ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/10 "2016-11-18T18:46:22Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > I’m not even sure why they’d have bothered to do so. The picture would look absolutely identical to one taken from earth’s surface. Yes, it’d be like trying to get a better picture of the moon by standing on your tippy-toes. It’s just not far enough to make any real difference. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/11 "2016-11-18T18:50:00Z")
I don’t think we could see the Milky Way from Los Angeles even back then, maybe the Hollywood scriptwriters didn’t realize it was there and so didn’t include it in any of the episode plots. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/12 "2016-11-18T18:59:29Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > I’m not even sure why they’d have bothered to do so. The picture would look absolutely identical to one taken from earth’s surface. Seriously? You don’t think the lack of an atmosphere might make a better photo? And, a shot of the moon surface with the Milky Way setting would be way cool (except the exposure wouldn’t work…). ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/13 "2016-11-18T19:14:57Z")
Yeah, it isn’t that the moon was _closer_ to the Milky Way, it just didn’t have that problem of atmospheric refraction. This was 20 years before the Hubble telescope. Still, when you just spent a decade and the equivalent of a trillion dollars trying to get to the moon, I can see why taking pictures of other random celestial bodies wasn’t priority number one. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/14 "2016-11-18T19:19:25Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You don’t think the lack of an atmosphere might make a better photo? Light absorption by the atmosphere is not big enough to be noticeable. Distortion by the atmosphere is only evident at high magnification (i.e. through a telescope). So no, it wouldn’t make an appreciably better photo of the milky way. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/15 "2016-11-18T19:27:10Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Light absorption by the atmosphere is not big enough to be noticeable. Distortion by the atmosphere is only evident at high magnification (i.e. through a telescope). So no, it wouldn’t make an appreciably better photo of the milky way. Wrong. Light pollution is the issue. Even in dark-sky locations, there is significant light pollution, and even if there were no artificial light sources, the atmosphere itself is a significant source of light: > **[Airglow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow)** > > Airglow (also called nightglow) is a faint emission of light by a planetary atmosphere. In the case of Earth's atmosphere, this optical phenomenon causes the night sky never to be completely dark, even after the effects of starlight and diffused sunlight from the far side are removed. This phenomenon originates with self-illuminated gases and has no relationship with Earth's magnetism or sunspot activity. > The airglow phenomenon was first identified in 1868 by Swedish physicist Anders Ångström.... ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/16 "2016-11-18T19:41:55Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Even in dark-sky locations, there is significant light pollution, and even if there were no artificial light sources, the atmosphere itself is a significant source of light: > > [Airglow - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow) I didn’t say the photos would be absolutely indistinguishable. But light pollution and airglow are minor effects if choose a good location on earth. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/17 "2016-11-18T20:00:45Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > I didn’t say the photos would be absolutely indistinguishable. But light pollution and airglow are minor effects if choose a good location on earth. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a milk way photo that didn’t have visible light pollution. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/18 "2016-11-18T20:08:52Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever seen a milk way photo that didn’t have visible light pollution. [Here’s one example.](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080104.html) Though you are probably right if you are talking about milky way photos that show the sky down to the horizon. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/19 "2016-11-18T20:26:52Z")
Pedantic: Since we’re part of the Milky Way, every photo we take is a photo of the Milky Way. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334/20 "2016-11-18T20:41:00Z")
You can certainly take a _far_ better picture of the Milky Way from Earth with a telescope that couldn’t be transported to the Moon via Apollo than you can with a scope that could be. It would’ve been a complete waste of space, money, effort, etc. to send anything astronomically worthwhile up with the astronauts. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-photos-of-the-milky-way-taken-from-the-moon/772334.md?page=2)