[Apollo 8]

AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF THE ICONIC "EARTHRISE" CAPTURED BY LUNAR MODULE PILOT WILLIAM ANDERS ABOARD APOLLO 8, here with the spacecraft window visible. "There was nothing in the plan for an Earthrise photo," Anders noted. "Indeed, we didn’t even see an actual Earthrise until, on our third orbit, we changed the spacecraft’s orientation to heads up and looking forward. As we came 'round the back side of the moon, where I had been taking pictures of craters near our orbital track, I looked up and saw the startlingly beautiful sight of our home planet 'rising' up above the stark and battered lunar horizon. It was the only color against the deep blackness of space. In short, it was beautiful, and clearly delicate."  

The lengthy inscription by Borman on this remarkable photograph references the moment in the mission at which the crew witnessed Earth rising above the lunar horizon. Lovell’s guess that Borman was captivated by Tsiolkovsky refers to the Tsiolkovsky crater, a large impact crater on the far side of the Moon.