Spacelog Apollo 8

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. We have a request that Jim space his marks, his five marks out a bit more slowly. If possible, we would like to get a couple of them past the zenith. We're getting five of them with rather rapid spacing, and from the geometry viewpoint, it would be better if you'd slow them down a little bit and lengthened them out so as to include a couple of them past the zenith. Over.

Roger. We understand.

Houston, Apollo 8. That last set of marks are invalid. Disregard what Jim drew the last time.

Roger. Understand the last set of marks are invalid. Over.

Roger. If you would correlate … the last set.

We have an awful lot of background noise, Jim. Could you say again, please?

Roger. I'm coming up on control point 3. I tried to stick another control point in between 2 and 3. It didn't do it, so I just took out our program, marked it down on the program.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. On Jim's marks, we'd like to get spacing of approximately 30, 30 seconds between each mark. The last ones we are copying roughly 15 seconds between marks, and we would like to stretch it out even further if that is okay with you.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Roger, Mike. I find that tracking is much easier using the sextant than the scanning telescope. You have finer control, and at these orbital speeds, resolved to medium seem to be the best combination.

Roger, Jim. I copy that it's easier for you to use the sextant than the scanning telescope. It gives you finer control, and say again after that.

Apollo 8, Houston. Do you read?

Roger. Did you copy?

Roger. I copy that it's—tracking is easier using the sextant than the scanning telescope; it gives you finer control, and say again after that. Over.

And the combination of resolved and medium is perhaps the best combination of—combination of—speed low is too low; we can't catch up with the target.

Roger. Understand that the best combination is resolved and medium. Low is just too low.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Roger. I'm not too sure what happened that time, Mike. I was marking on the landing sites, using the code, and I kept getting a large trunnion for AUTO OPTICS. And I could see the target, or landing site was coming up, so I just went manually and marked and got the—the latitude and longitude were quite different from the nominal.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. We're checking into Jim's remarks on his P22; and in the meantime, I have your maneuver PAD's and map updates, at your convenience. Over.

Roger.

Go ahead with your data, Mike.

Okay. And before that, we'd like to take the DSE away from you, please, for a while.

All yours.

Thank you, and we'd like you to go to P00 and ACCEPT. We have a P27 state vector update for you.

There's P00, and I'm going to ACCEPT.

Thank you.

All yours.

Which would you like first, the map update or the TEI 8?

The map would be fine.

Okay. Map update: LOS 82:55:54, sunrise 83:05:49, prime meridian 83:11:38, AOS 83:41:43, sunset 84:18:45; remarks: control point 1 acquisition 83:07:39, control point 2 acquisition 83:20:21, control point 3 ACQ 83:41:51, B-1 acquisition 84:02:28. Over.

You keep good books; that's all correct.

Thank you.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. Some time back, we noted evidence of a restart in the computer and wondered if you had any remarks about it. Over.

I know it. Jim got screwed up on one of those programs. He's getting kind of tired here, and we got a RESTART and a couple of PROGRAM ALARMS. I don't know what he did.

Roger, Frank. The main point is the computer is looking fine to us, now.

That's good.

Houston, don't believe all you hear up here.

No, we have a filter, Jim, for that.

Thank you.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go.

Roger. In some of Jim's previous comments about the limb brightness as the sun was about to come up has sparked a lot of interest down here. And we'd like to ask him if he gets a chance to notice again or perhaps he can recall, whether there were any changes in the appearance of the stars. Such as, did he notice any twinkling while this was taking place, and did he notice any narrow limb brightening within 10 to 20 seconds prior to the sun's rising? Over.

He'll be with you—he's doing a P52 now.

Okay.

Houston, my comments concerning the sunrise was the comments above the terrain. There appeared what might be called diagonal light or light due to the haze or something like that. As the sun came above or before the sun came above the limb, definite rays could be seen coming from the other side. It was a uniform haze emanating from the center spot where the sun was going to rise, and this was something which I didn't expect.

Roger, Jim. Understand. We copied that and just curious, and if you see it again whether you notice any stars twinkling or any additional information.

Will do. Won't have a chance until control point 1.

Actually, he doesn't want to pass out too much of that information. He wants to save it and write a paper when he gets back, Mike.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Okay. What time is that TV, Mike, 85:37?

85:37 to terminator, which is probably like 86:14.

Okay. Well, I don't know if we can go that long with it, and I'm going to scrub all the other experiments, the converging stereo or other photography, and we are a little bit tired; I want to use that last bit to really make sure we're right for TEI.

Roger, I understand, Frank.

A couple of miscellaneous items for you: we'd like for you to discontinue charging battery B at this time; we'd also like to get a cryo stir, 2 minutes on all four; and your UP TELEMETRY IU switch, put to BLOCK, please, and you are GO for the next lunar orbit.

Thank you.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead, Frank.

Roger. I want to scrub these control point sightings on this next REV, too, and let Jim take a rest.

Roger. I understand.

I understand you want to scrub control points 1, 2, and 3 on the next REV and the converging stereo on the following REV.

That's right. We're getting too tired.

Okay, Frank.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

This REV coming up we would like to clarify whether you intend to scrub control points 1, 2, and 3, only, and do the pseudo landing site; or whether you also intend to scrub the pseudo landing site marks. Over.

We're scrubbing everything. I'll stay up and try and keep the spacecraft vertical and take some automatic pictures, but I want Jim and Bill to get some rest.

Apollo 8, Houston. Four minutes to LOS. You have control of the DSE now, and all your systems are looking good.

Thank you very much, Mike.