Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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I
fcientific Debriefing
-43­
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~f he city: of El Pase,.
I could see some little isolated civilized areas.
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pever did see the main part of city.
,
tfi: ;Paul Lowman:
Did you see any distinct shadows from the terrai!n? Mountains?
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Cooper: • Yes.
You could see shadows of the m_ountains quite clearly. Even more
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blearly than the mountains in the twilight were the shadows from clouds on ground.
Paul Lowman:
How did the camera o_perate while taking pictures? Do you recall
shaking the camera at any time?
Cooper:
No:
I don't recall shaking the camera at all:
Paul Lowman:
They all look pretty good; I just wanted to make sure. Is there
any vibration in the capsule when you are taking pictures?
Cooper:
No.
Very little. It is pretty smooth.
Paul Lowman:
Do yqu think if you had a cha.nee to sit down with those photographs,
you could give us an idea of the inclination to the vertical or horizontal? You
said over the West you couldn't see Los Angeles or San Diego, do you remember
how far north you could see'l along the coast'l
Cooper:
I could see three or four hundred miles on up north. There was a lot
of cloud cover-a lot of stratus. You could see patterns where the ground caused
difference in cloud formation.
Paul Lowman:
How about on the east coast?
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Could you identify anything there'l
Cooper:
I could see the Cape clearly on one pass e.nd ;the St. Johns river and
could see where it ,ca.me in the inlet at Jacksonville. Right to a.bout Savannah,
Georgia and clouds became broken and I could see banks of clouds lined on up
to what I believe was the bulge of the Hatteras area and prehaps 150 _miles on
•further. But clouds wer~ obscuring. I felt I could see quite clearly on up north
to Hatteras and perhaps on up to the Washington area. My sight of this was when
I made my turnaround. It looked just like a map. It was a great wide expanse of
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