Apollo Programme first sent astronauts to the Moon almost 50 years ago and since then it was one of the most discussed mission. The pictures taken of the Moon became iconic.
Brian May, the Queen’s guitarist, has a doctorate in astrophysics and can create 3D images from prints or digital images and is now working at a book with David Eicher, that maps the Soviet-American race to the Moon in 3D.
His company London Stereoscopic Company (LSC) is in west on of London. Brian May managed to collect stereo images, cameras and optical viewers, over the years. His first stereo image was taken 60 years ago and is a capture of his father decorating his natal home.
‘No one had ever done a 3D book on the whole Apollo history and we thought ‘Can we do it, is there enough material?’ – Brian May
May realized that no one knows exactly how the moon looks in all his glory, so he decided to create The Mission Moon book full of 3D pictures with help from Claudia Manzoni that gave him information from NASA. The artist invented a pair of plastic lenses that make the 3D effect easier to see.
The photographer explained how he takes he creates the stereo pictures. He said that our brains put what the two eyes see together and makes an image in our brain.
‘ What you’re trying to do in 3D photography is to recreate that effect, so you take a picture from here and a picture from here, and you make sure that this picture goes to this eye, and this picture goes to that eye.’
‘I’m not the first person to make 3D pictures in this way but I think we are the most persistent… we’ve got something like 200 stereo pictures in the book, and they all work.’
Brian May was in Cornwall watching from TV the first time astronauts stepped on the Moon surface, 50 years ago, and he still has that image in his head. He also got to meet Neil Armstrong.
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