Jack Aeby

Jack W. Aeby (; August 16, 1923 – June 19, 2015) was an American environmental physicist most famous for having taken the only well-exposed color photograph of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945 at the Trinity nuclear test site in New Mexico. While color motion pictures of the Trinity test were made, most were badly overexposed or damaged due to the fireball's tendency to blister and solarize the film. Aeby was a civilian assigned to the Health Physics Group with Emilio Segrè at the time his snapshot was taken.
Aeby is a source for a story about a notable estimate made by Enrico Fermi at that test:
The photo was taken with a Perfex 33 with a 35mm lens, using a shutter speed of 1/100 at f4 and Anscochrome color film.
Aeby joined the Manhattan Project in 1942 and through his work with the Los Alamos National Laboratory witnessed nearly 100 nuclear explosions. He lived in the Española Valley in northern New Mexico with his wife Jeanne. They had 5 children. Aeby died at his home in Española in 2015.Victoria (Australia)
==Photos of Aeby==
File:Jack 1944.jpg|Aeby in 1944 with his Perfex 33
File:Jack Aeby 2014.jpg|Aeby in 2014
== See also ==
*Berlyn Brixner – official Trinity test photographer
==Notes==
==References==
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==Further reading==
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==External links==
*2003 Video Interview with Jack Aeby by Atomic Heritage Foundation Voices of the Manhattan Project
*Jack Aeby, Atom-Bomb Photographer (MP3) on NPR's All Things Considered (July 15, 2005)
*Jack Aeby exhibit at the Los Alamos Historical Museum (photos), The Los Alamos Monitor
Category:1923 births
Category:2015 deaths
Category:American nuclear engineers
Category:American photographers
Category:Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel
Category:Manhattan Project people