NASA releases amazing panoramas of Apollo sites to mark anniversary of moon landings

These amazing panoramas of the moon have been released by NASA to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

Imagery experts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center ‘stitched together images taken by the Apollo astronauts to form the impressive vistas.

The images, made by NASA imagery specialist Warren Harold, have been praised for their accuracy by Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the only geologist to walk on the Moon.

"The Valley of Taurus-Littrow on the Moon presents a view that is one of the more spectacular natural scenes in the Solar System,” Schmitt said about images stitched together from his Moon base Station 5 at the Taurus-Littrow landing site.

“The massif walls of the valley are brilliantly illuminated by the Sun, rise higher than those of the Grand Canyon, and soar to heights over 4,800 feet on the north and 7,000 feet on the south.

“At the same time, the summits are set against a blacker than black sky -- a contrast beyond the experience of visitors from Earth. And, over the South Massif wall of the valley, one can always see home, the cloud-swirled blue Earth, only 250,000 miles away."