I suppose that if I were to complain about how NASA is making available the bulk of the photography captured by Artemis astronauts, NASA would tell me to go to the Moon and get my own pics, if I think I could do it better. But the fact remains that they're just dumping these things: 12,217 new images released this weekend, "available" on a website that barely works, and not sorted, or sortable.
Also, a few hundred of the pics, presumably from when they were figuring out camera settings, are just totally black. That's relatable enough.
I'm a sicko for this stuff, so I did power through. I thought it'd be a service to share some of my favorites of this new tranche. I must say I'm especially taken with the ones that feel a little less professionally composed—the ones that show a bit of the window of Orion, or a reflection of one of the astronauts taking the photo. It puts it on a human scale that we don't often get from astrophotography, and makes it easier to put myself in their shoes: that's the frickin' Moon out the window.
Enjoy:
I'd probably be OK with the Artemis program if its only purpose was to take photos (it's not). It's not cheap, but expensive is relative: We've already spent more money bombing Iran than NASA has budgeted for the entire year.
