The Apollo 16 astronauts enjoyed this spectacular view of "the blue planet" shortly after leaving Earth orbit. The solid white area to the upper left is the Arctic icecap, with snow-covered terrain below in Canada, and lower still the arid land of the American west and the greener regions of the east. Hasselblad 70mm transparency probably by Kenneth Mattingly, Apollo 16, April 16-27, 1972. Photos courtesy NASA; digital scanning and image processing © 1999 Michael Light Studio