Spacelog Apollo 8

Key moment TV broadcast 2: views of the earth: Hello, Houston; this is Apollo 8. We have the television camera pointed directly at the earth now and have followed the instructions you gave us.

Roger, Frank. We're picking something up on our TV. It's not very good so far, but let it sit for a second, and we'll have more instructions for you.

Okay. It's coming into view now, Frank.

It is?

Yes. We have it in the corner of our screen. You're slightly off on your pointing, but we're getting a darn good look at the corner of it.

It's moving off, Frank. It's moving off our—3 o'clock on our TV screen. I have no idea what to tell you about which way to point.

It's moving further away. We've lost it now.

Apollo 8, Houston. Receiving nothing now. Over.

Okay.

We're receiving the picture; we're just not seeing the view of the earth.

Roger. I got you.

Okay. We are just picking it up at 3 o'clock on our screen.

Okay.

It is moving up toward 1 o'clock and in toward the center; keep it going in that direction.

Okay.

It's looking better. You're holding it about 1 or 2 o'clock. Looking better. Give us a little more in that same direction. You're down at 3 o'clock now. We see about half of what you see. Too much. It is disappearing at our 5 o'clock. Now it is coming back. It is half off—screen at our 2 o'clock.

And it's disappeared off at our 3 o'clock. There, It is coming back in now. It is headed toward the center of our screen.

MARK.

It is right in the center of our screen. Just hold her—hold her steady. It is really looking good. Okay. We have —

What you're seeing, Mike, is a—Houston, what you are seeing is the Western Hemisphere. Looking—at the top is the North Pole; in the center—just lower to the center is South America—all the way down to Cape Horn. I can see Baja California and the southwestern part of the United States. There is a big long cloud bank going northeast, covers a lot of the Gulf of Mexico, going up to the eastern part of the United States, and it appears now that the east coast is cloudy, I can see clouds over parts of Mexico; the parts of Central America are clear. And we can also see the white, bright spots of the subsolar point on the light side of the earth.

Roger. Could you give me some ideas about the colors, and also, could you try a slight maneuver? It is disappearing. We're seeing about half of it. It is going off to our 12 o'clock. Now it is going off to our 3 o'clock. That is the wrong direction. Yes, that is a good direction.

We need another small correction to bring it to our center screen. If you could maneuver toward the terminator, that is the part of it we are missing. We are getting the lighted portion. There you go; that's fine. Stop it right there.

Okay. For colors, waters are all sort of a royal blue; clouds, of course, are bright white; the reflection off the earth is—appears much greater than the moon. The land areas are generally a brownish—sort of dark brownish to light brown in texture. Many of the vortices of clouds can be seen of the various weather cells. A long band of—it appears cirrus clouds that extend from the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico going straight out across the Atlantic. The terminator, of course, cuts through the Atlantic Ocean right now, going from north to south. Southern Hemisphere is almost completely clouded over, and up near the North Pole there is quite a few clouds. Southwestern Texas and southwestern United States is clear. I'd say there are some clouds up in the northwest and over in the northeast portion.

Roger. Could you maneuver toward the terminator again, please?

A little bit more. Stop her right there and hold it. It keeps slipping up a little bit; could you maneuver slightly more toward the terminator?

How is that, Houston?

We are getting about half of the earth, Frank. The top half—our top half which includes the dark portion it—is obscured.

How is the definition on the picture?

Looks pretty good.

Can you see cloud patterns at all?

That's affirmative.

Good.

Are you still seeing it, Houston?

Yes, we are seeing it. We are missing the portion of the earth that is over toward the terminator. The dark portion of the earth is what we are not picking up. We are getting about three-quarters or four-fifths of the rest of it.

Roger. I will move it, and tell me when I am getting better or worse please.

Good.

Stop right there. That is worse, Bill. Go back where you were. You made it disappear to our 3 o'clock. Now it's coming back. Okay. Stop right there. Now you are back where you were, and we need a motion that is about 90 degrees to that last one you gave us.

That is the wrong 90 degrees. 180 degrees away from that one.

Stop right there. Okay. Now we have lost a different half of it. I need a motion 90 degrees to that last one.

That is good right there, Bill. That is good right there.

Apollo 8, Houston. If you can stick your polarizing filter in front of the camera without disturbing anything else, it might improve the quality slightly.

Standby.

Roger, Bill.

Okay. The polarising filter is in front.

How is it now, Mike?

Still looking good. That didn't make much of a change one way or another, but in general, considering how far away you are, it's looking excellent.

Well, I hope that everyone enjoys the picture that we are taking of themselves. How far away from earth now, Jim, about?

We have you about 180 000.

You are looking at yourselves at 180 000 miles out in space.

Frank, what I keep imagining is if I am some lonely traveler from another planet what I would think about the earth at this altitude, whether I think it would be inhabited or not.

Don't see anybody waving; is that what you are saying?

I was just kind of curious if I would land on the blue or the brown part of the earth.

You better hope that we land on the blue part.

So do we, babe.

Jim is always for land landings.

Roger. This picture is drifting off center again. If you could make another correction to bring it back. I couldn't tell you which direction, but you're going the right way, you're going the right way. A little bit more; a little bit more. Whoa, stop right there. That's the best centering we have had, Apollo 8. If you could just hold that, that's perfect,

To give you some idea, Mike, of what we can see: I can pick out the southwest coastline of the Gulf and where Houston should be, and also the mouth of the Mississippi; I can see Baja California and that particular area. I am using a monocular that we have aboard.