Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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to me.
I said, "Well I, that means I must go left," and as
I came left, I started picking up other stars which became known
to me through the starfield that I had rehearsed.
Then the moon
and Venus showed up and that was here.
O'Keefe - It must be very difficult to pick up constellations when
you have a starfield to look at that is as small as through your
window .
Gill - It isn't ....
Schirra - No, Orion, for example, was not included in t he window, so
you might see the belt and that's about i~, or maybe one or two others
in the constellation.
That's about all.
When you see something
like Aldebaran, and the "v" (Hyades in the Constellation Taurus) ­
if you just saw that alone, you might very well get trapped,
thinking it was the Pleiades , particularly, if you don't have an
attitude.
You know how well, I know you got trapped (turning
to Dr. Gill) when we went into the Planetarium for the first t ime ­
things were inverted for you?
Gill -
Oh yes - yes, indeed.
Schirra - When you have an unknown attitude , the star picture is bent
out of shape .
You can get into trouble fast.
Nordberg - I .had a heck of a time the first time I was in Australia;
it was difficult to recognize anything.
Schirra - Isn't it!
Yes and when we aren 't changing attitude and
even when we know the starfield, it's not changing once youv 1 e
seen it on the first orbit.
So I was sitting there with the star