On November 11, 1966, Aldrin and fellow astronaut Jim Lovell had just arrived in orbit in Gemini XII, and maneuver, following directives from NASA, into position over the Galapagos Islands from where they could catch a glimpse of the total solar eclipse that was also observable from the ground in places like Peru and Brazil.
Richard Nixon's executive decision to pre-record a successful moon landing, just in case, signalled the beginning of the end of the Apollo project. The Dream of Apollo by Stanley Kubrick, recorded in 1969, featuring Neil Armstrong in the leading role, also brought in Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. (who was positioned as lunar module pilot on the actual Apollo 11 mission that never took place. )
In The Dream of Apollo, the act where Neil Armstrong and his crew witness a solar corona, is, memetically, traced to Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. flight with the Gemini XII in 1966, 3 years before Stanley Kubrick's production.
