As we gear up for the NASA Artemis mission launch, two American astrophotographers have shared some amazing images of the moon after combining around 200,000 individual images into one masterpiece. The mind-blowing image has been doing the rounds on social media as it involves the perfect illustration of craters, colors, and texture of the moon. It should be noted that NASA is launching its Artemis I mission next Monday, and the recent accomplishment is a symbol of a “collaborative tribute” to recognize the efforts behind this giant moon rocket launch mission.
Andrew McCarthy who is based in Arizona worked together with a renowned planetary scientist and a space photographer, Connor Matherne, and generated this masterpiece. The image is breathtakingly beautiful and is captured with great attention to detail. The rocket will launch from the Space Launch System (SLS) from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Monday and the mission will be uncrewed this time. McCarthy said, “This image is a love letter to the upcoming Artemis 1 mission, the first human-rated lunar launch vehicle in 50 years. Sadly, I couldn’t upload the full details to Twitter, so here’s a close crop of the surface. It’s also the largest print I’ve ever done!”
You can also see the tweet from McCarthy which came after he released the astonishing image of the Moon. He further stated, “When he and I put our heads together we were able to make something a little off-brand for both of us, which is cool. The whole thing is assembled like a mosaic, and each tile is made up of thousands of photos.” It should be noted that both these fellows worked for nine months straight, day and night, in editing the photos and compiling the individual 200,000 images together. However, as far as the capturing of the photos is concerned, it only took them a single evening for this.
Aside from just focusing on taking images from every angle, the two fellows also concentrated on the different colors that the moon exhibit from its different parts. McCarthy said they have also waited for the perfect sky conditions besides having a camera, tripod, and a star tracker to capture the images perfectly. However, depending on the success factor of the Artemis I mission, NASA has plans to send Artemis II as well around 2024. Artemis II would also contain a human crew on board including four astronauts that will probably stay there for 21 days.