[brudgers]

One idea: Use this picture of Neil shot immediately after his historic walk on the moon.

After reading the Armstrong family's statement last night, that's the photo which expresses the legacy he wished.

He looks ready to wink back.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/AS11-37-5528HR.jpg

[jeffool]

If I still worked in news (I worked in TV) I'd go with this, definitely. "Neil Armstrong, seen here back in the lunar module after his historic moon walk..."

Also, the picture of Armstrong climbing back in the Lunar Module is fine.

Conversely, to those arguing the use of a reflective shot of Aldrin's visor? I think that's worth including if I'd also included that shot inside the LM. An close up of this picture, showing Alrin's helmet, backpack, and shoulders, reading "Neil Armstrong took most of the photographs on the moon that had an astronaut in them. However he can be seen clearly in the reflection of Buzz Aldrin's visor here." Just pair it with a matching (size-wise) photograph, unzoomed.

[brudgers]

What I love about the photograph is that it captures his total wonderment at having just fn walked on the fn moon.

He and Aldrin still have to get their spacecraft off the Lunar surface, rendezvous with the command module, fly back to Earth, and land the damn thing.

It captures a timelessness moment in between.

[angstrom]

If nothing else, the following plaque sums the humbling nature of someone who accurately captured the gravitas of the moment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A11.plaque.jpg

Today, some of the flags planted on the moon still stand upright. However, 40 years of intense UV radiation have bleached them all white. The plaque remains.

[estebank]

Somehow I feel that bleached out featureless flags on the Moon matches the message in that plaque perfectly.