The Earth is seen off the lunar horizon in this telephoto view taken by the astronaut Bill Anders from the Apollo 8 spacecraft on December 24, 1968. On Earth, 240,000 miles away, the sunset terminator crosses Africa. The South Pole is in the white area near the bottom end of the terminator. North and South America are under the clouds. As the crew was in the middle of their fourth lunar orbit, Anders looked out of window 5 and exclaimed "Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!" He and Commander Frank Borman shot several images of the event, with this one becoming the most famous, known as Earthrise. (Bill Anders / NASA)
La nave soviética Luna 3 devolvió las primeras vistas del otro lado de la luna. Esta primera imagen fue tomada el 7 de octubre de 1959, a una distancia de 63.500 km, después de que la Luna 3 hubiera pasado la luna y mirara hacia el lado lejano iluminado por el sol. Se tomaron veintinueve fotografías, cubriendo el 70 por ciento del lado opuesto.