Bathurst astronomer Ray Pickard doesn't remember the moon landing - he was two-years-old at the time - but he's quite familiar with the iconic moment.
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In fact he describes it as one of most famous moments in mankind's history.
"I think it's one of those defining moments of the last millennium," he said.
"You can think of all the things that happened in the last millennium but that image of a human footprint on another world, I think that was the defying moment in human history."
The landing of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard was a heart-stopping affair.
Millions of people from all across the world - from New York City, London, Paris and Tokyo - would've watched on, even in the Central West town of Bathurst, where people would've crowded around their black and white televisions to watch the historic moment.
With Armstrong's heart racing at 156 beats per minute, he landed the Eagle gently down on the moon's Sea of Tranquility at 6.17am (AEST) on Monday, July 21, 1969.
And at 12.56pm (AEST), Armstrong put his foot onto the lunar surface and uttered that famous line: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
In the process, Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and 19 minutes later, Aldrin joined him.
The two astronauts spent 21 hours and 31 minutes on the lunar surface at a site they named Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin command module Columbia in lunar orbit.
Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the command module alone in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the moon's surface, meaning Collins was the unlucky one from the three-man Apollo 11 crew that didn't walk on the moon.
And while Mr Pickard doesn't remember the Apollo 11 mission, he does remember the ones in the subsequent years.
"There was more than one Apollo mission and I remember the ones still going ahead in the 70s, watching those rocket launches on television," he said.
"That's inspired me now to do the things I do now, with my interest of space.
"Astronauts were heroes, the celebrities of the time. Everyone wanted to be one and all the kids dressed up as astronauts. It had a big impact on a while generation of people."
There would be another five more human moon landings from 1969 to 1972, with Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17.
An explosion aboard the Apollo 13 mission in 1970 meant that the crew was unable to land on the moon, rather performing a circumlunar loop, with the events dramatised in the 1995 movie Apollo 13.
After Armstrong and Aldrin, 10 more people who go to walk on the moon - Pete Conrad and Alan Bean (Apollo 12), Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), David Scott and James Irwin (Apollo 15), John Young and Charles Duke (Apollo 16) and Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17).
A man hasn't stepped on the moon in 47 years and it seems unlikely that man will step on it again in the near future, with it cheaper and more efficient to explore the moon with uncrewed spacecraft.
Thanks to the moon landing, it's drastically changed technology according to Mr Pickard.
"The amount of technology that had to be created and invented to achieve that goal was incredible in such a small period of time," he said.
"The technology spin-offs from that moment include things like communication and everyday things that we take for granted."
- READ MORE: Moon landing footage impossible to fake
And there's also quite a few people out there that believe the moon landing never happened, but Mr Pickard is happy for people to believe what they want, however, he does point out one thing.
"One thing I do point out is that the Apollo 11 landing happened during the peak of the Cold War," he said.
"Russia and America were staring down missiles at each other. If American hadn't gone there, Russia would've eventually got there. So that's one of the simplest answers."
Bathurst people reflect on where they were when man landed on the moon in 1969:
- Ros Sullivan: I remember we all got sent home from school so we could share the historic occasion with our family. We were told to look up to the moon and even though we wouldn't see them, we know that astronauts were going to walk on the moon.
- Christopher Morgan: I was very young and a small black and white TV was set up in our classroom showing that grainy shadowy image. It seemed to go on and on. My teacher was so excited. We ate Vegemite sandwiches. I was just too young to understand the significance of it but I'm into it now!
- Ellen Gaggin: In the school library with the whole school to watch Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.
- John Draper: Remember coming home from school and watching it on TV in black and white. Years later, after colour TV came to Australia, it looked much better.
- Sandy Boyd: I remember going home from school it watch it on TV.
- Nils Gustafson: I was eight years old at Double Bay Public School in year three and I was pretty sure we sat in the class room and watched a black and white TV with Mrs Allan. We obviously didn't understand the magnitude of it with us being so young. What I was more concerned about was getting my pineapple doughnut for lunchtime.