Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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53
Cameron - I saw the zodiacal light once doing that in Chicagoo
I came out of a lighted building.
It was the first time I had
seen it. It was in a part of the sky where I didn't expect to see it .
Schirra - I think that our test, frankly, that have been conducted
to determine dark adaptation are not done well enough.
I don't
think we can really justify how fast we adapt b:y the tests we have
run .
I have yet to see that quan~itative analysis made that should
be made.
Intuitively, I feel that I ad apt faster than the tes t
has ever proven to me.
We had very comp l icated systems , such as that
at Pensacola where you pick up the horizon and objects, trucks and
airplanes and ships, -- I'm sure you remember this routine -- and I
never was sympathetic to this study.
I think there is a bett er way
of defining it, however, by having you in an opaque room or rather
going from a lighted room into an opaque room seeing what can you see.
Have these measured light sources there and then identify them as
rapidly as you can .
Of course, you've got to keep identifying
because you are adapting all the time.
Tennyson - Is it correct then that this window of ours (Vicor
window) has .never really been nailed down as far as transmissivity
is concerned.
Schirra - It has been carefully nailed down, I understand.
Roman - Yes, but not under quite the · flight conditions.
Schirra - Well, I was carrying this photometer, and did make some
measured readings on some objects, but this comes back to the photo ­
meter check on Aldebaran.
This comes back ·to what I really made