If you’re rocking one of the best camera phones, you’ve probably snapped or recorded something to be proud of. But – and I mean no offence – chances are you won’t be able to top NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman’s Earthset video, shot on an iPhone 17 Max during the Artemis II mission.
An Earthset is exactly what it sounds like – instead of the Sun dipping below the horizon, it’s a view of the Earth itself slowly vanishing behind the Moon’s surface as seen from lunar orbit. And yes, it looks every bit as surreal and as beautiful as it sounds.
The 53-second clip was captured through the Orion spacecraft’s docking hatch window, with Wiseman switching to the iPhone’s 8x zoom to frame the shot. There’s a brief moment where the camera refocuses, but once it locks in, you get a remarkably clear view of the Moon’s cratered surface as our planet gradually slips out of sight.
While Wiseman was filming on an iPhone, fellow astronaut Christina Koch was also shooting the same scene on a Nikon camera with a 400mm lens – you can even hear the shutter bursts in the background.
Wiseman himself said the view at 8x zoom was “quite comparable to the human eye”, which gives you a sense of how natural the Earthset footage looks. He also noted that the iPhone’s size made it easier to position at the narrow hatch window.
This isn’t the first time the Artemis II crew have leaned on Apple’s handset, either. Earlier in the mission, Koch snapped an image of Earth using the iPhone’s front camera – a silhouetted, almost poetic shot from inside the spacecraft that quickly did the rounds online.
Granted, even shots taken with a 0.014 megapixel Game Boy camera will look amazing from a space shuttle, given the view. But with the amazing pictures and videos we’ve seen so far, we’re very glad that the Artemis II crew have camera gear that’s worthy of the majesty they’re facing.
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