Look at the Moon tonight, it’s just about full. Fifty years ago, as three American astronauts were speeding toward the lunar destination, it was just a sliver in the sky when they launched on July 16, 1969.

There was exhilaration among most humans on earth as they contemplated that three men were about to set foot on another celestial body.

Many of the youth of that day, around retirement age now, were captivated by the space program from the beginning and hold tight their memory of the moon landing half a century later.

Fountain Hills resident Jim Dickey, husband of Mayor Ginny Dickey, said he was hooked from the beginning on the Mercury program that first sent men into orbit. But he adds that, like most, his eye was on the Moon as the ultimate goal.

“I remember that day well – Glendale, Calif. – sitting on my parents’ floor in front of the TV with a Pentax Spotmatic-SLR atop a tri-pod shooting Tri-X film,” Dickey said. “I took two 24-exposure rolls and the next day was in my darkroom.”

He notes that unfortunately only three of the photos survive, but today they are professionally framed for a very special reason.

As an adult in 1999 Dickey received a book as a Christmas gift, “Full Moon,” the first book that used NASA negatives for print, instead of copies of photos.

“I carefully stored the remaining prints inside the book cover…waiting for my chance,” Dickey said. He was hoping for a chance to make a connection with the subject of the photos he took from the television screen, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Dickey learned that his boss with the Regional Public Transportation Authority in Phoenix had a connection to Aldrin; a cousin of his boss, Ken Driggs, was Aldrin’s wife.

Dickey said he made it a point to attempt to persuade Driggs to introduce him to Aldrin, even suggesting they make a lunch date with Aldrin and fly to California.

“One Saturday in the early 2000s, the call came,” Dickey said. “I rode shotgun with my boss to pick up Buzz at the airport [in Phoenix].

“We talked on the road trip to his destination, but when I pulled out the book and photos, he became more engaged. He asked if I took my photos off the TV?

“Made my day when he signed all three 8x10s! As for the book – remember that famous footprint photo? – it now bears his signature with the words ‘one big step for me!’

“As we posed for a picture, I talked with a guy who walked on the Moon!

“To this day, July 20, 1969 remains as one of my most vivid memories. I consider it the most important scientific and historical event of the 20th century.”

When Ted Blank was nine years old Alan Shepard was launched on his sub-orbital flight. Blank was 10 when John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

“[I was] 17 when I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to step on the surface of the Moon,” Blank said. “I watched all the launches (including the Apollo 11 moon landing) on my parents’ small black and white television at our home in Syracuse, N.Y.”

Blank says the space program “launched” his interest in computers, which became his passion over a career spanning 45 years in the information technology field.

“During this time I became a NASA Solar System Ambassador, volunteering and giving talks at many events around the country about the space program and the exploration of the Solar System,” Blank said.

“In 2017 I decided to put together a Fountain Hills Community Center talk on ‘How Mankind Got To The Moon.’ As I reviewed the information available on the internet and on NASA’s websites I became fascinated with one particular piece of equipment – the Lunar Module.”

That is the ungainly box-like craft which took two astronauts to the surface of the Moon while a third companion piloted the Command Module in orbit above the surface. The two lunar explorers were then returned safely back into lunar orbit to meet up with the “mother ship.”

“In my research into the design and construction of the Lunar Module I learned that it had been built by Grumman Aircraft Corporation in Bethpage, Long Island,” Blank said. “I was able to visit the Grumman History Center in Bethpage where all of the company’s Apollo memorabilia are kept.”

At that center Blank was able to handle and photograph some of the actual parts that had been part of Lunar Modules under test.

“One of the most amazing items was one of the ‘thank you’ cards created by the Apollo 13 crew to show their gratitude for the work done on Earth to bring them back safely after an explosion crippled their ship on the way to the Moon,” Blank said.

“While unmanned spacecraft are currently returning all kinds of fantastic pictures and data from space, I am looking forward to the day when humans return to the Moon and use it as a stepping stone to explore Mars and the other planets.”

While Americans and much of the world were entranced by the Apollo 11 mission in the summer of 1969, there were other U.S. flyers focused on another mission. The country was still deeply involved in the war in Vietnam.

Capt. Larry Ernst, U.S. Navy (ret.) served in the Navy for 32 years and was an aviator like many of the astronauts.

In the summer of ‘69 Ernst was aboard the USS Kitty Hawk flying F-4 Phantom jets on missions over Vietnam, some 136 combat missions during his tour.

Ernst, who now splits his time between a home in Tonto Verde and Pinetop, has vague memories of seeing the television footage of the Moon landing.

As a graduate of the Navy Test Pilot School, Ernst said he would qualify for the astronaut corps with NASA, but chose not to. He recalls a buddy who became an astronaut and spent years in training only to fly a single mission.

In the meantime, Ernst said he continued flying combat missions, was a Top Gun and Top Gun instructor and had command assignments, including the last man to command the USS Midway before it was retired as a floating museum at San Diego.

Ernst is a member of the Navy Golden Eagles, a fairly exclusive group of what he calls “old and bold” Navy pilots, including Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, the nearly doomed flight mentioned previously. There are a number of other Golden Eagle members to serve as astronauts including those who commanded Shuttle missions.

Ernst said it took a lot of courage for the early astronauts to fly in space.

“A lot of their equipment was first time ever use,” Ernst said. “You couldn’t test equipment like the lunar lander; it was one-time use…if it failed.”