Full Moon Memory: Skywatcher Snaps a Lunar View for Apollo 11 Anniversary

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Moon on 47th Anniversary of Apollo Landing
Italian Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi took the image on July 20, 2016, 47 years after man first landed on the moon from Rome, Italy. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi )

A skywatcher looked up at the full moon 47 years after Neil Armstrong took his epic "small step" on the lunar surface to capture this stunning image. Italian astrophysicist Gianluca Masi took the image on July 20 from Rome, Italy.

"I managed to capture this image, showing the Full Moon rising above the Coliseum in Rome, on the very night of the Apollo 11 landing  (July 20, 1969)," Masi wrote in an email to Space.com.  He runs The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 from Rome.

On July 16, 1969, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins launched toward the moon atop a mighty Saturn V rocket. Four days later, on July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin landed their Eagle lander at Tranquility Base on the moon as Collins remained in orbit aboard the command module. [Apollo 11: A Moonshot Memory Pop Quiz]

Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo you'd like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

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Nina Sen
Contributing Writer and Producer

Nina Sen is a freelance writer and producer who covered night sky photography and astronomy for Space.com. She began writing and producing content for Space.com in 2011 with a focus on story and image production, as well as amazing space photos captured by NASA telescopes and other missions. Her work also includes coverage of amazing images by astrophotographers that showcase the night sky's beauty.