LOUISIANA: NASA EPSCoR alumnus’s images of the moon go viral on Reddit and Instagram
Photos by Louisiana Space Grant & NASA EPSCoR Programs alum Connor Matherne and his a collaborate recently went viral. The remarkable images of the moon have never-before-seen color and detail.
Over the course of a single evening, astrophotography collaborator Andrew McCarthy shot more than 200,000 detailed photos of the moon from Arizona while Matherne shot another 50,000 images from Louisiana to capture color data. Over nine months, they stitched together thousands of photos of the lunar landscape to create the high-resolution moon shot. They named the images "The Hunt for Artemis," in tribute to NASA's Artemis I mission, an uncrewed flight test that, according to the space agency: "will provide a foundation for human deep exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to return humans to the moon and extend beyond."
“One of the drivers behind my astrophotography is just getting people excited about the universe and our place in it,” said Matherne. “Anything I can do to help get the public excited generally results in more missions and funding for awesome scientists to lead great projects like Artemis or the Mars Perseverance Rover. With that said, if my photos only result in a single person going outside and looking up at the stars, that is still a victory in my book. ”