Bill Anders (LMP)

You should see the horizon now in the top of your picture.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We have the horizon, Bill.

Bill Anders (LMP)

I believe these are the craters now Bassett and See.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Bill. If you have the polarizing filter handy, try flipping it in front, would you?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Jerry, as a matter of interest, there's a lot of what appears to be very small new craters that have these little white rays radiating from them.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We see the filter going over it. Apollo 8, this is Houston. Looks like we have too much light. The polarizing filter doesn't help much. Go ahead and remove it again.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Looks like we just got —

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. We're just passing over the crater Borman, and there's Anders out there; Lovell is right south of it.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. The TV is breaking up now. Okay. We are back with a good picture. Looks like we just have too much light. Our definition is rather weak.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Also, we're fogging up the window here, Houston, among other problems.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Bill. The other window is better than that one.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Much better picture, Bill; much better.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Alright. The right side of the camera is pointing retrograde. We are now passing abeam of the crater Houston; I will show the camera over there once for the folks in Texas.

Bill Anders (LMP)

It's a big and sprawly one; it's got those two impact craters, one to the right and one to the left.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Still about the same, Bill. It's—the terrain's pretty bright. We are not getting much definition at all; definition on this side is much much better.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay. I think—Okay. We are leaving the window; that gives you an idea how bad our window is.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. This picture now is much better; I guess the light levels are decreasing now.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay. We are coming up on the crater Collins.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. What crater is that just going off.

Bill Anders (LMP)

That's some small impact crater.

Bill Anders (LMP)

We will call it John Aaron's.

Bill Anders (LMP)

If he'll keep looking at the systems anyway.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Jerry, another ID feature: these small impact craters have dark spots in the center where it appears that they buried in it and hit some new material down below and scattered a lot of fine white dust around them.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand, Jim.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8. This is Houston. Looks like we can see Collins now.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. There is Collins for you.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

And Collins is right on the edge of Smythe's Sea which we are about to pass over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

We are now going across the Smythe Sea. Go ahead.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We just saw a Stellenword go by.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. He was really in a hurry.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Picture is much improved now; getting better all the time.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. The terrain here is, as you can see, not well defined. We are going to start a roll to the left, in order to come across the target area, with the television —

Bill Anders (LMP)

— landing site area.

Bill Anders (LMP)

How is that crater in—right in the middle look now?

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Spoken on Dec. 24, 1968, 12:42 p.m. UTC (55 years, 9 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet