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@cosmos4u@scicomm.xyz
2026-04-11 23:32:50

Just noted interesting parallels between #ArtemisII and Apollo 11 and 12, involving #SolarEclipses, either by the close Moon or by the Earth: during or after each of the three missions the astronauts described these events as their visual highlights. The Artemis II crew has done this several times - and in the post-flight press conference after #Apollo11 Neil Armstrong did it, too, in youtube.com/watch?v=Yz6nzutr7R in the segment from 42:20 (in the transcript files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED0 on PDF pages 21--22).
What he was describing is the eclipse just before arrival at the Moon of which I had re-processed the best image in facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/p -> skyweek.wordpress.com/2024/07/ (and he is mistaking the zodiacal light they saw and photographed with the solar corona, the very same mistake made repeatedly during Artemis II).
Finally, a solar eclipse by the huge Earth observed from Apollo 12 just before splash-down was described by Alan Bean as "the most spectacular sight of the whole flight" while it happened: skyweek.wordpress.com/2019/11/ (no images of totality were taken but Bean later painted the view from memory). The reason I had looked up the Apollo 11 presser was to see how this famously well-prepared post-lunar mission presentation looked like and when it happened: 19 days after their return.