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  First color photos of Earth from space rediscovered

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Author Topic:   First color photos of Earth from space rediscovered
jtheoret
Member

Posts: 400
From: Albuquerque, NM USA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 02-13-2023 12:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jtheoret   Click Here to Email jtheoret     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The first color photographs of Earth from space have been unearthed after nearly 70 years! Read all about this incredible discovery at apollospace!

Unlike a previous thread regarding the first color photo of the full Earth from space (ATS 1967), this regards the rediscovery of the first color photos of Earth from space ever (100 mile altitude), which were originally recorded on 16mm film that was carried into space on an Aerobee rocket launched from White Sands Proving Ground in NM on October 5, 1954.

I am in the process of having the 1954 film and negatives of Dr. Berg scanned. I am correcting and restoring these and will soon have the very first high-resolution images and much more to reveal!

MartinAir
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Posts: 281
From:
Registered: Oct 2020

posted 02-13-2023 05:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MartinAir   Click Here to Email MartinAir     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Congratulations, Jeremy! Can't wait too see the results.

jtheoret
Member

Posts: 400
From: Albuquerque, NM USA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 02-24-2023 12:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jtheoret   Click Here to Email jtheoret     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have scanned and processed all the internegatives (155 negatives) Otto Berg made of the Naval Research Laboratory/Berg 16mm film launched on an Aerobee Rocket (AJ 10-24) on October 5, 1954 that I recently acquired – the first color images of Earth from space. The decades old negatives lost a lot of color over the years, but still were able to produce acceptable images after almost 70 years.

The 16mm film itself (and copies) have more color detail and I will be having each frame individually scanned at 4K to produce the best images and "movie" possible – so look for that in coming months – but for now, these are the best first color photos of Earth available:

Frame 20 of the Berg film showing the first view of Earth's horizon in color.

Frame 20 doesn't show much of the horizon or curvature though. Frame 21 of the Berg film shows more of the Earth's horizon in color, thus revealing much more curvature (and makes for a better "first color photo of Earth from space" photo…). Note the emulsion flaw is on the original film and I did not try to remove that because it is historical and trying to remove it would have altered the clouds too much.

but technically (and accurately speaking) the first color image of Earth from space is actually this one – frame 2 of the Berg film (frame 1 is only a partial frame)

Not much to look at, but there it is – the first color images of Earth from space from an altitude of 100 miles!

jtheoret
Member

Posts: 400
From: Albuquerque, NM USA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 04-04-2023 03:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jtheoret   Click Here to Email jtheoret     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here is the second part of the story of the creation of the first color photograph from Space in 1954 by Otto Berg of the Navy Research Laboratory: The Mission & the Montage.

Read more about this incredible discovery at apollospace!

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