APOD: Apollo 12: Self-Portrait (2019 Nov 24)

[APOD Robot]

Apollo 12: Self-Portrait

Explanation: Is this image art? 50 years ago, Apollo 12 astronaut-photographer Charles "Pete" Conrad recorded this masterpiece while documenting colleague Alan Bean's lunar soil collection activities on Oceanus Procellarum. The featured image is dramatic and stark. The harsh environment of the Moon's Ocean of Storms is echoed in Bean's helmet, a perfectly composed reflection of Conrad and the lunar horizon. Works of photojournalists originally intent on recording the human condition on planet Earth, such as Lewis W. Hine's images from New York City in the early 20th century, or Margaret Bourke-White's magazine photography are widely regarded as art. Similarly many documentary astronomy and space images might also be appreciated for their artistic and esthetic appeal.

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[orin stepanek]

BeanConrad_Apollo12_960.jpg

Stark beauty; yes! Art; yes: also it immortalizes the event!

[Boomer12k]

I have a friend, Jean, who used to stargaze with her 10" Meade on the Helipad down from Palomar... She has a painting of M42 as if you are looking through the lens...so there is no color but "off greenish"... awesome painting... I will see if I can get a picture, and put it up in the cafe, or something...

Space Art is COOL!!!

:---[===] *

[neufer]

The Fabulous Photo We Never Took

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<<Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932 – May 26, 2018) had planned on using a self-timer for his Hasselblad camera to take a photograph of both Pete Conrad and himself while on the lunar surface near the Surveyor III spacecraft. He was hoping to record a good photo, and also to confuse the mission scientists as to how the photo could have been taken. However, neither he nor Conrad could locate the timer in the tool carrier tote bag while at the Surveyor III site, thus lost the opportunity. After finding the self-timer unit at the end of the EVA, when it was too late to use, he threw it as far as he could. His paintings of what this photo would have looked like (titled The Fabulous Photo We Never Took) and one of his fruitless search for the timer (Our Little Secret) are included in his collection of Apollo paintings.>>

[Astronymus]

After finding the self-timer unit at the end of the EVA, when it was too late to use, he threw it as far as he could.

So, that's what frustration in space looks like.

[MarkBour]

The Fabulous Photo We Never Took

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<<Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932 – May 26, 2018) had planned on using a self-timer for his Hasselblad camera to take a photograph of both Pete Conrad and himself while on the lunar surface near the Surveyor III spacecraft. He was hoping to record a good photo, and also to confuse the mission scientists as to how the photo could have been taken. However, neither he nor Conrad could locate the timer in the tool carrier tote bag while at the Surveyor III site, thus lost the opportunity. After finding the self-timer unit at the end of the EVA, when it was too late to use, he threw it as far as he could. His paintings of what this photo would have looked like (titled The Fabulous Photo We Never Took) and one of his fruitless search for the timer (Our Little Secret) are included in his collection of Apollo paintings.>>

Thanks for the additional art, Art! I never knew that Alan Bean made some paintings of his time on the Moon. I'm glad he did, they have a special meaningfulness.

One of my reactions to the sharp lunar photo is "Ah, Alan Bean is wearing the original GoPro camera ... made by Hasselblad, that is."