I couldn’t let this anniversary pass without notice.
Forty years ago today, the astronauts of the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon took the picture now known as “Earthrise”.
Our pale blue planet, rising over the horizon of our companion satellite.
You, my faithful readers, may recognize the image. It’s the one I chopped up to make the background image for my blog (RSS readers, please feel free to click through).
I used the image because of my lifelong connection to the Moon, based on the last name my father gave me. I remember being a child and watching avidly whenever NASA launched men into space (and later, when I was an adult, women, too).
Merry Christmas Eve, pale blue dot.