Breathtaking!  Our world just hanging there in space!

So many molecules needed to get man to the Moon in the first place, and many more swirling around on the amazing planet we call our own!

But let's come back down to Earth a little bit (just joking!)  What molecules helped the photographs be taken?

Forty years ago there were no digital cameras!  Hard to believe, eh?  No quick "snap it and see, then delete and snap it again" - you snapped, then waited until you had snapped the rest of the "film" of, say, 36 photographs, then being very careful not to let light anywhere near the film, you re-wound it onto a spool inside an air-tight case, which you took to a specialist (often in a high-street shop) to be developed - that would take anywhere from a day to a week...  get the picture? (he, he!)... a long process for what often turned out to be rubbish photographs at great expense.  No wonder photography was a hobby for the few!

Photographic film was made first from cellulose compounds.  It was made sensitive to light by coating with silver halides.  Once an image had been captured (the photo taken), it needed to be developed in a special dark room. 

After developing, you had a 'negative' copy of the image on the film and a 'positive' photograph printed on paper.

The photographs from the Moon had a long wait before returning to Earth to be developed... but it was worth it!

Action:

Never owned an old-fashined camera?  Everything you might ever need to know, plus instructions how to make your own pin-hole camera here.

Lenses are used in cameras to focus the incoming light and form a clear image - here are some simple activities demonstrating the geometry of camera lenses . Grades 9-12