Every year, I show my astronomy class clips from When We Left Earth about the great 1960's race to the Moon. This means I have seen all of these clips at least a dozen times. They give me chills every time. It's just amazing what the United States pulled off in that decade.
One of the many moments that move me is the serendipitous picture of the Earth rising over the surface of the Moon taken by the Apollo 8 mission. It was 1968 and they were the first men to ever go fast enough to hit escape velocity, they were the first to go more than 200 miles away from Earth, they were the first to see the 'dark' side of the Moon with their own eyes, and they were the first to see our planet as a sphere. If they hadn't been caught by the Moon's gravity on the way out, then they would have never come back - they did not have enough fuel to rocket their way back to Earth, only to do minor boosts and corrections.
No one had thought of taking a picture of the Earth from the Moon's perspective ahead of time - they were focused on the Moon itself, of course. The astronauts just happened to look up and realize they were seeing something amazing. Something no one had ever seen before, and they took some unscripted pictures of our home planet.
"We went to the Moon and discovered the Earth." - Bill Anders
It's been described as "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken" and as "the most influential picture of the 20th century."
But, I'm thinking, what picture could be more poignant or important or moving... ever? I mean to see something you have known your whole life and to see it for what it is for the first time. You can't top that, can you? What one shot picture taken on a handheld camera by a real person could ever be more important?
This picture was taken before I was born so I've taken it for granted my whole life. But today I am pausing and appreciating it, really appreciating it, for the first time:
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