Today is the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch towards the Moon that landed the Eagle there on July 20, 1969. The site is named Tranquility Base and remains there still.

I was nineteen at the time. I loved America's space program. I sat for about 12 hours in front of the TV watching the historic event happen. I recorded the TV's audio channel for about an hour of the actual first Moon Walk on a cassette tape. That tape still works!

Today I published a podcast of that recording over at Digital Passages Podcasts. I also created a High-Resolution Desktop of my Apollo Moon image to celebrate the event.

I went through a lot that Spring and Summer of 1969. The Moon Landing was one of the few bright spots in my life then.

The following insight was originally written on May 3, 2004.

Apollo Moon (Image created in July 1999)

I watched the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in July 1969. As an avid follower of the Space Program, I was fixated in front of the TV as Walter Cronkite moderated the Moon landing sequence. Thirty years later, Neil Armstrong spoke on the anniversary of that historic trip. I never met Neil Armstrong, but I wish I had. This image is a tribute to that Moon Mission thirty-five years ago. Using my own words, I quote a portion from that page's narration:

"In the mid 1980's, my family became charter members to the Cernan Earth and Space Center located on the campus of Triton College where I was teaching at the time. During the next three years, we met three of the astronauts that walked on the Moon. We will never forget those experiences of talking with them in-person."

Don