1st Man On the Moon Dies

Saturday - Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, dies aged 82.

On that historical day, July 20th 1969; Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission,became the first human to set foot on the moon. As he stepped on the dusty lunar surface, Armstrong said: "“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." 

Those words endured as one of the best known quote in the English language. 

Portrait of Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing mission in his space suit, with his helmet on the table in front of him. Behind him is a large photograph of the lunar surface.  Image Credit: NASA

The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission crew, pictured from left to right, Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot.  Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 11 astronauts trained on Earth to take individual photographs in succession in order to create a series of frames that could be assembled into panoramic images. This frame from Aldrin's panorama of the Apollo 11 landing site is the only good picture of mission commander Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface.  Image Credit: NASA

Nostalgia...

I remember that faithful year well...

In Penang, my dad bought a black and white television to watch that historical moment.

I was a student in Melbourne studying Illustrative Photography at the R.M.I.T.
, later that year me and some of our class mates drove to Canberra and attended the HYPO Convention.

Yours truly and world famous photographers to be posed for a group picture while on our way to the HYPO Convention in Canberra.

The 20 something photography student at some Australian country road.

Young M.I.B. with the proper HYPO badge for the convention in Canberra.

All the participants at the Canberra HYPO Convention were given a 8x10 colour print of the moon landing :)  The photographic colour print has been produced by Group Color from an original transparency supplied by NASA!

As you can see from the picture below, I STILL GOT THAT PRINT!

This 43 year old colour print shows Apollo 11 U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon, next to the Lunar Module "Eagle".  It was taken by Neil Armstrong of NASA with a Hasselblad SWC camera.

Oh... that was also the year I got obsessed with the Omega Speedmaster wrist watch that the NASA astronaut wore!  My dad finally bought me one in 1972 ;)

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)

R.I.P.