Carl Zeiss Participated in the First Moon Landing

Over 40 years ago, the first man landed on the moon: July 20, 1969, 9.17 PM CET. Back then, 600 million fascinated people were staring at their TV screens watching the Apollo 11 space capsule landing on the moon. Carl Zeiss optical instruments were on board. Technical progress and ground breaking optical developments have been setting milestones of competency in the history of Carl Zeiss for 160 years – encompassing products such as spectacles, photographic lenses and microscopes.

Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed! Those were the words the first man on the moon uttered after the landing. Six hours later, Neil Armstrong embarked on his first moon walk saying the now legendary words That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. Like any well equipped tourist, he brought along his Carl Zeiss camera – a Hasselblad 500 EL with ZEISS Biogon Lens 5.6/60mm.

Back then, these cameras were among the very best in the world. NASA’s most important criterion as it chose the camera was of course its dependability. Some lens types, such as the Biogon, were famous for their extremely low optical distortion. This lense is an optimum tool for the taking of geometric measurements

Carl Zeiss developed a specific moon lens for the first moon landing mission, given that all conventional series lenses were not suitable or inadequate for this purpose. Consequently, different lubricants were used on the moon lense. It also did not have any leather or plastic components.  Pressure compensation holes had been drilled into the frames. The operating element had been modified so that it was easy to control by someone wearing gloves. These modifications were essential for uses outside of the space capsule.

Buzz Aldrin on the moon (Photo: NASA)

NASA continued to use Hasselblad cameras with Carl Zeiss lenses on its subsequent moon missions. Among them were versions Biogon 38, Biogon 60, Planar 80, Sonnar 250 and Tele-Tessar 500.

Even today, twelve of the cameras with Carl Zeiss lenses remain on the moon. They were left behind because of their weight. Only the film magazines were brought back to earth. So if you should happen to stop over on the moon one day, go ahead and take them with you. These cameras are highly collectible.

Photo Source: NASA