Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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clear to you that the internal lighting was off inside the
vehicle.
I don't know why I didn't bring that point out.
This reminds me that it was dark and it was 0605 52.
I had
to see what time it wasa
We had this counter clock as you
know, and to see the numerals I had to bring my fingertip
lights up to see them.
It was quite dark within the vehicle
and this is quite an advantage to this observation.
Then I
say that Mercury is on the horizon and this meant that it was
just coming down through what I described going up, if you can
follow my directions here.
This is where Mercury was as the
pointer or index as it passed through these layers.
Now· again,
we proceeded through time so that light patterns will change
and that's why these descriptions do conflict as we progress
on in time.
I think this might explain why.
As I come back
through with Mercury now setting these same light bands are
not the identical ones that I described previously and I used
the word "airglow" and even the way it came out in the tape
I said see the Mercury going through the - and I was searching
for a term and so I just said "airglow" just so I wouldn't
have to get into a big discussion about what I was going to
report on.
Actually, I could have said through the -- I was
searching for a term -- but this "airglow" I was using simply
as a term to describe what I was looking at.
I could have said
through the lighted horizon.
O'Keefe - Twilight layer is probably a better way to say it.