Spacelog Apollo 8

Key moment TV broadcast 6: views of the earth: Apollo 8, Houston. We're getting television.

Roger. How's the picture?

Roger. The picture is on the lower right hand of our screen.

Camera should go down away from the terminator and to the right.

Still down and about the same place; a little worse; now it's coming in

Are you getting it now, Jerry?

Roger. We've got most of it; keep moving off to the right. Good. You have it centered right now.

Well, the earth looks a little bigger to us today, not much, but it's somewhat bigger. I'm sitting over in the right hand seat now; Bill has got the TV camera; Frank is helping him out aiming it directly to hit the earth. I hope we have a good picture. Can you see the clouds?

Affirmative. We sure can. Move it up toward the terminator—correction, away from the terminator just a shade.

At the tip of South America, there is a great swirl of clouds down there. It looks like a great storm. I wonder if you can see it.

Roger. We see a large swirl just south of the terminator.

Roger. And then up to the left hand side, or towards the north, we can see the light waters around the West Indies, and we can actually see Florida. I'm looking through Bill's monocular, and I can see the various land masses, South America and the central part and southern part of the United States.

Roger. Move-a little bit away from the terminator now, a little left with the camera and a little further from the terminator.

Say again, Jerry.

Okay. You're moving it toward the center of the screen now, and the earth is off on the left side of our screen.

Real fine. That's good. Hold it right there.

What we're thinking about right now, Jerry, is hitting that wedge angle, about 2 degrees their limit. When we come back, the earth looks pretty small right from here.

Roger.

You got it, Bill.

As I look down on the earth here from so far out in space, I think I must have the feeling that the travelers in the old sailing ships used to have: going on a very long voyage away from home, and now we're headed back, and I have that feeling of being proud of the trip, but still—still happy to be going back home and back to our home port. And that's—that's what you're seeing right here.

Roger, Bill. We'll sure be glad to get you back, too.

This is Frank Borman. We've enjoyed the television shows, and we'd like you to stay tuned in in the future because there'll be flights and rendezvous and earth orbit, and then, of course, there'll be television from the lunar surface itself in the not too far distant future. So, until then, I guess this is the Apollo 8 crew signing off, and we'll see you back on that good earth very soon.