Photographer’s eclipse image fuels decades-old moon mountain mystery

Photographer Anna Þórhallsdóttir took eight photographs of a solar eclipse in Reykjavík on June 30, 1954. One image attracted attention for decades because she believed it showed a mysterious mountain on the Moon, mbl.is reports.

The photograph became the subject of coverage by Morgunblaðið and other outlets. Þórhallsdóttir later met astronomers in the United States in an effort to solve the mystery.

Gísli Helgason, project manager at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography, says the explanation is far more down to earth.

In an interview with Morgunblaðið in 1991, Þórhallsdóttir described the eclipse as the greatest adventure of her life. She said the sky was bright when she left home, although clouds had gathered low on the horizon and the eclipse was beginning.

As she approached central Reykjavík, she saw what she called a remarkable natural phenomenon. Looking down at the brightly lit street, she saw shadows resembling a slatted fence, with five rays.

Near the Salvation Army building at Kirkjustræti 2, she said the eclipse became almost brownish and that she felt her heart beating as if the Earth’s gravitational pull had changed.

She ran to a photography shop called Týli on Austurstræti, hoping to borrow a good camera. The shop assistant could not lend her one but offered her sunglasses. Þórhallsdóttir declined and continued to Hans Petersen’s shop on Bankastræti.

There, she met Búi Petersen, the son of Hans Petersen, and asked to borrow a camera and the most light-sensitive film available. He lent her a box camera with unground glass and a film with room for eight photographs.

When the eclipse appeared, she ran back down Bankastræti and Austurstræti. With no traffic on the street, she was able to stand in the road and take photographs.

For a moment, she said, what appeared to be mountains seemed to move across the Moon, and she managed to capture one of them. The image shows the alleged lunar mountain in the upper right-hand corner.

She described the spectacle as so beautiful that she almost fell to her knees to pray. The rays of sunlight emerging from behind the Moon resembled a bright star, which she compared to the Star of Bethlehem.

Þórhallsdóttir said the experience had a profound effect on her and described it as a powerful experience of peace and faith. After using all eight exposures, she continued looking at the sky through the box camera, regretting that she had not had a longer roll of film to capture more of the mountains she believed she had seen.