Spacelog Apollo 8

Negative, Mike. We can't see anything past the terminator with the binoculars or without them. This earth is just too bright, and it cuts down the night adaptation to see anything on the dark side.

Roger. Understand.

Since this is winter—since this is winter time in the northern hemisphere, we can see all of the South Pole and the southern ice cap, and not too much of the North Pole.

Hey, you and Jim better get together. Jim just said he saw the North Pole.

He is looking out a different window.

That is what makes it different.

Do you still have the —

He has the monocular upside down.

Do you still have the polarizing filter in front of the camera?

Negative?

Okay.

Try putting it back in front of the camera one more time.

Okay.

And once again, we need a small attitude correction. Our earth is disappearing up and to the right. Our earth and your earth. The wrong way, wrong way. A little bit more. Okay. That is fine if you can hold it right there. Oops! Now it's slipping back off again. Okay. Keep coming a little bit more, a little bit more. Okay. Ninety degrees to that direction; that is the wrong 90, the other way. There we go. A little bit more. Nope, wrong way, wrong way; I am sorry. Keep coming in that direction. No, it is gone up at our 12 o'clock. There we go, it is coming back down. There we go, it's coming back down, it's coming back down. Bring it down a little bit more. Okay. Stop. Now we need 90 degrees to that direction again.

I hope that the next camera has a sight on it.

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.