Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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O'Keefe - It is not a difficult thing to see the zodiacal light
under reasonably favor~ble conditions.
Schirra - No, I have seen it frequently, but not ' as brilliantly.
Gill - Have you seen it in Houston by any chance?
Schiira - I have seen it just flying at night~
I haven't seen it
from Houston recently, no.
Gill - Well, this is the season to see it.
You should see it . . .
about three-quarters of an hour after sunset.
Schirra - From an airplane, you can see it better than yoµ can
from a Mercury spacecraft.
You don't have this dimming of ligh t
through your canopy as you do from the spacecraft~
This is really
a spectacular sight.
Of course, the pilots were so concerned
because they didn't know what it was.
This was hundreds and
hundreds of miles away, and yet they felt they were in danger .
(Laughter)
They wanted answers right away.
Gill - They got them, didn't they?
Schirra - Of course, you've heard that the whole West Coast was
enthralled by this sight.
It was in the newspapers.
Roman - Speaking of the brightness of the zodiacal light,
Dr. Mulders, NSF, was in Chile at a high altitude last fall,
and he commented to me, that the zodiacal light was so bright
that he was able to see it from horizon to horizon without
difficulty.
Schirra - Amazing--horizon to horizon- ~! am not sure what we ar e
going to see at thousands of miles from earth c
I suspect that