Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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5

This didn't seem to be any problem. Looking up fairly close to the moon, I would guess a--counting a number degrees probably, you could see right up to the edge of the moon. The stars would be visible right up--very close, it's not like it is when-[You observe the moon from the earth's surface]

Fairly faint stars?

Yes, I think so, just like the other--the whole field of stars you're looking at, you come up and--the only way, when you swing the capsule around and you'd be approaching ZKXX area where the moon was, you could tell it because there would be moonlight coming in the window and you would see the light moving across on the capsule. ZKXX That's the only way you would know that you're really coming close to the moon. You didn't know it by the sky getting a real light as you come to the moon like you do here. There was a little area around it where this was true. It wasn't just/complete cutoff, but it was nothing like the buildup we have here where you are looking through the atmosphere and get all this. [scattering]

Any Comets?

No. No comets. I used the first sunset. I had this little polaroid filter out were were going to use so that we could look directly at the sun. This, while I think of it, this was another thing that was rather surprising to me. The sun is not as blinding as I thought it would be. I told the people in debriefing down there after experimenting very carefully with this a little bit, I looked directly at the sun with the naked eye just as you would do here. You've looked up and squinted so that you have really shielded your eyes and looked directly at the sun/a little sliver of light through. And