How NASA’s Lunar Photography Brought the Heavens Down to Earth

Produced by Nick Donofrio, Gabriel Gianordoli, Maridelis Morales Rosado, Andrew Sondern and Rebecca Thomas.

Images: Pan Plates AS12-47-6982 to 7006 (assembled) via NASA; Pan Plates AS12-46-6836 to 6844 (assembled) via NASA; AS11-40-5912 via NASA; AS11-40-5877 via NASA; S62-06021 via NASA; Lovell and Haise via NASA; AS11-40-5850 via NASA; AS11-40-5903 via NASA; “Illustrated Astronomical Treatise,” via Khalili Collections; “Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger),” via DeAgostini/Getty Images; “​​Astronomical Observations: the Moon,” via Vatican Museums; “Lunar Daguerreotype,” via NYU Special Collections; “The Moon, New York, January 8, 1865,” via Princeton University Art Museum and Museum purchase, bequest of John W. H. Simpson, Class of 1966; “Full Moon. From Negatives Taken by Prof. H. Draper, With His Silvered Glass Telescope,” via The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; “Group of Lunar Mountains, 1885,” via The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; AS11-44-6551 via NASA; AS12-46-6716 via NASA; AS12-49-7242 via NASA; Pan Plates AS12-47- 6982 to 7006 via NASA; AS12-49-7278 via NASA; AS11-40-5880 via NASA; “Le Voyage Dans la Lune,” by Georges Méliès; “Woman in the Moon,” via U.F.A/Alamy; “Untitled (Moon Image),” via Vija Celmins and Matthew Marks Gallery; “Le Voyage Dans la Lune,” via Gallica Digital Library; “The Starry Night,” via Museum of Modern Art; AS12-50-7371 via NASA; AS16-117-18841 via NASA; AS12-49-7207 via NASA.