- Solar eclipse image from Artemis II shot with 12-year-old action cam
- The 'greatest gift' moment recorded with a GoPro Hero4 Black
- The mission's gear choices continue to surprise camera fans
The Artemis II crew continue to send stunning images back to earth of key moments during its moon fly-by — not least of which include a solar eclipse from the far side of the moon.
Like other iconic images from the mission, the sight, never before seen by humans and described by crew member Victor Glover as 'the greatest gift' of the mission, was captured with the most surprising camera gear of all, at least to camera fans and so far as image quality goes.
Following the Lumix GH5 for take-off shots, the decade-old Nikon D5 DSLR for the incredible Earthset image and earth selfies with iPhone 17s, the solar eclipse was captured with an even older action camera, the GoPro Hero4 Black.
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A full 12-years-old, the Hero4 Black was launched in 2014 and has long been discontinued, being replaced several times over, with the latest model being the Hero 13 Black.
It's one of a string of surprising gear choices, at least to camera fans who might have expected the multi-billion dollar mission to be equipped with the latest and greatest camera gear. So what do we know about the solar eclipse images and the gear used to record the epic sight?
The Artemis II crew had the rare chance to see a solar eclipse from space. 🚀🌘☀️This video stitches together views from Orion's solar array wing cameras throughout the eclipse, showing the Sun as it disappears behind the Moon, revealing a glowing halo around the lunar disk. pic.twitter.com/d3Z64hVbefApril 9, 2026
I need a Hero
NASA describes the image named 'Eclipsed: A View from Orion', dated April 6, 2026, as the moon, backlit by the Sun during a solar eclipse, with the Orion visible in the foreground on the left. It also reveals the bright spot visible just below the moon’s bottom right edge to be Saturn, and the bright spot at the right edge of the image as Mars.
EXIF data on the NASA site reveals the camera gear and settings used to record the solar eclipse image. The Hero4 Black was set to manual white balance, auto exposure, ISO 800, and a 5-second exposure time.
The Hero4 Black was the first in the series of action cams with ProTune manual control, which has enabled a slow shutter speed, along with Bluetooth and WiFi support, though, of course, later models pack these features and more.
And it's not the only stunning image from the mission captured with the Hero4 Black. Unsurprisingly, GoPro has shared other key images on its Instagram (see above), pinpointing four moments.
We reached out to GoPro for comment about why the Artemis II mission opted for the 12-year-old action camera, and it said;
"Unfortunately, we are not in the position to go any deeper on these questions than what is publicly available — NASA has very strict guidelines on their brand, and we can’t speak on their behalf."
I'm sure the camera gear choices will be one of many questions posed to the crew upon its safe return to earth, and I, for one, will be keen to hear what they have to say.
For now, I'm marvelling at the incredible images shared so far, in the knowledge that there are plenty more images and moments yet to come.
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