Earthrise

This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the moon after the lunar orbit insertion burn. Earth is about five degrees above the horizon in the photo.

The unnamed surface features in the foreground are near the eastern limb of the moon as viewed from Earth. The lunar horizon is approximately 780 km from the spacecraft. Width of the photographed area at the horizon is about 175 km (109 miles). On the Earth 386,000 km (240,000 miles) away, the sunset terminator bisects Africa.