It is one of the most touching scenes in movie history.
The moment in ET that the silhouette of Elliott and his alien friend fly across the full moon on their way to the forest has been lauded the most magical moments in cinema.
It was, of course, the result of clever use of special effects, but now one Swiss photographer has shown how the same picture could be almost replicated with no tricks. Just a lot of patience.
Magical: Swiss photographer Philipp Schmidli waited four months to capture this breathtaking image of a cyclist dwarfed by the rising full moon
Iconic: The most famous image from SSteven Spielberg's 1982 film ET shows the alien flying across the face of the moon in a bicycle basket
Philipp Shmidli from Lucerne waited four months to capture this breathtaking photograph of a mountain biker's silhouette as a colossal moon rises on the horizon.
After bad weather thwarted his attempts to take the picture in January, February and March, the persevering photographer finally took the photo last week.
He was lucky enough for the weather to clear over his chosen scene just as the moon's cycle reached its April climax.
That scene had been decided on following hours of exploration on Google Earth, searching for the perfect location on which to frame the image, and from which to shoot it.
Since relative position of the moon changes from month to month, it meant that for every attempt foiled by the weather Mr Schmidli had to plan a new shoot for the next full moon rise.
And in order to have the moon dwarf the photograph's subject, Mr Schmidli needed a large gap between the camera and the hill with no trees, fences, telephone or power lines in the way.
'Although I live in a hilly area and know it well the choice of photo position has given me hours of grief,' he said on his blog.
'I looked at possible locations for months on site or searched via Google Earth for locations in the region.'
All good things: Bad weather thwarted Mr Schmidli's attempts to capture the image in January, February and March. He finally got the photo as clouds cleared last week
Research: The scene had been decided on following hours of exploration on Google Earth, searching for the perfect location on which to frame the image
Technique: In order to have the moon dwarf the cyclist, Mr Schmidli needed a large gap between the camera and the hill and took the photo from nearly a mile away
Mr Schmidli shot the final set of photos from nearly a mile away using a professional-grade Canon 1D X digital SLR camera, fitted with a 600mm f/4 telephoto lens with an additional 2.0x extender cap.
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That means he was shooting at an effective focal length of 1200mm, PetaPixel explains. The camera was set to ISO 2500, with an aperture of f/25 and a shutter speed of 1/250s.
He communicated with his subject, fellow photographer Roger Grütter, by walkie-talkie to get him into the perfect position.
The results speak for themselves.
Mr Schmidli said: 'The aim was also to map the moon as sharp as possible, so that you can see the crater and not just a white, round circle behind.'
More examples of Mr Schmidli's work can be found on his website www.philippschmidli.com
Mr Schmidli's set up: He shot the final set of photos from nearly a mile away using a professional-grade Canon 1D X digital SLR camera, fitted with a 600mm f/4 telephoto lens with an additional 2.0x extender cap. The camera was set to ISO 2500, with an aperture of f/25 and a shutter speed of 1/250s