“Segue to the Challenger explosion: based on my experience, there should be detailed pictures of the death of Challenger somewhere. I wonder where.”

Are you talking about the 1986 Challenger that exploded during launch? Because there are numerous photos and videos of the launch, explosion, and debris. Click my name for details.

@Charles,

Same question. Also, what do you mean, “oath of secrecy?”

I’ve done my share of astrophotography. I was joking They would indeed need to setup the camera on a tripod of sorts to take any long exposure shots. It would have been cool tho, no atmospheric turbulence.

But they did take pictures of earth. That’s astrophotography no?

As for taking pictures of the moon from earth, the exposures can be quite short. If using a decent telephoto lens, a fraction of a second say 1/125 for 200 speed film should show some surface details. Similarly shots of the planets could be short exposures as well.

We’ve never seen the highest resolution film/video that there is.

Nor, out of respect to the families, have we heard the post-breakup audio. It exists and I know it exists because an immediate family member has heard it. It is not like that faked transcript that circulated and is on snopes.com, and that is all he will tell me — again, out of respect and also because of his oaths of secrecy.

Doesn’t any photography on the moon automatically fall under astrophotography?

Not so, my initial-sharing friend. If you are on the moon, then the moon is no longer a celestial object from your frame of reference. Besides, astrophotography generally requires large apertures and long exposures to collect enough light, and all of the photos taken on the moon’s surface were exposed for bright sunshine, i.e. small apertures and short exposures.

Thanks for pointing out the sun would be brighter too, but I did reference that in my post

As for astrophotography from the moon, that would have been really cool. Anyone know of any such pics? Doesn’t any photography on the moon automatically fall under astrophotography?