Solar Scattering from Condensation in Apollo Translunar Injection Plume

For the Translunar Injection burn of the Saturn IV B spacecraft during the Apollo 8 mission, a spectacular visible plume was photographed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on Mt. Haleakela, Hawaii. The specific mechanism responsible for the plume radiance has not been unambiguously identified, although solar scattering from ice crystal formed in the expanding plume has been suggested as a plausible mechanism. In this work, we have calibrated and reduced the raw photographic data and have used nonrigorous condensation theory to predict ice particle condensation and size distributions. Our data reduction and analysis indicate that 5-10% condensation with particle sizes in the 70-100 A range would be necessary to explain the obserbed data.