Spacelog Apollo 8

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.

Roger.

How is that?

Well, that has disappeared, just practically. We were wondering if there was any chance of your looking out one of the other windows and seeing the moon? Hey, it is coming back in, Bill. Okay. Hold it right there. That is just fine for the earth right where you are. That is extremely good on the earth if you can just hold that.

I don't think we have—It has the polarizing filter in front of it now, Mike.

Roger. Thank you, and it is centered very well. We get a very slight improvement with this, but in general, it is very good considering the distance. How about the moon, Frank? Is it visible through one of your other windows? Could you get it visible with a small maneuver?

Negative. I think we will have to save the moon for another time.

Roger. I understand. You are still very well centered with your picture. We noticed a couple of jumps in the apparent intensity. Did you make some filter changes?

Roger. We tried to put that other red filter in front of it, but it didn't seem to fit.

Roger.

We would—On a final test when you get down to the end of your allotted time here, we would like you to remove all filters and let us see how it looks with all filters removed, and then we would like to get several spotmeter readings at the very end after the test.

Okay. We will be removing the red filter now.

Roger.

Do you still have us, Mike? The lens is off now.

Roger. We have it, and if you could maneuver it toward the terminator slightly, you would again center our picture.

Okay. Stand by. How's that? Is that the right direction?

That is the right direction. Keep coming. Now that is the wrong direction, Frank. Did you —

How is it now, Houston?

Well, negative. I need another maneuver toward the terminator. It is drifting off the screen to our 11 o'clock. We appear to need a maneuver toward the terminator, Frank.

Thank you.

No, that is apparently the wrong way, Frank. We are starting to lose the picture. There you go. That is the correct way.

Okay, Houston. How's that for today?

That is just fine, Frank. That's great. We would like to, at the conclusion here, take three spotmeter readings. You can do that at any time at your convenience. We would just like to get some after-the-fact readings on the earth intensity.

Roger. Jim has got the spotmeter on now.

Thank you.

Is it centered now, Houston?

Not quite, Frank.

That's good right there. Hold that right there. That's good. That's perfect.

Okay, earth. This is Apollo 8 signing off for today.

Good show, Apollo 8. We appreciate it. See you manana.

Roger.