 For a mission into space, Gemini 5 was actually kind of boring. It was a long duration test of the fuel cells astronauts would need to go to the moon, but the crew took some incredible pictures, and that's what we're looking at today on Vintage Space. Gemini 5 was first and foremost a long duration test, but after fuel cell and thruster issues, Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad were forced to basically drift along in orbit for the bulk of their flight. But during that flight, they had some pretty interesting photography objectives to kill the time. The Synoptic Terrain experiment had the astronauts take high quality images of some choice spots on the planet, sites that were poorly understood given the state of the art of aerial and orbital photography at the time, and also sites that might be analogous to features on other planets. Like the rift valleys extending from Turkey through Syria, Jordan, the Red Sea, and eastern Africa going as far south as Mozambique. This naturally occurring feature on the earth, NASA thought was going to be analogous to the rails on the moon, Reels that Apollo astronauts would be exploring before too long. The Synoptic Weather Photography experiment focused on clouds rather than on surface features. The purpose here was to gather images that would supplement satellite photography and generally increase our understanding of global weather pattern. It was something that would be just as useful in helping understand weather patterns on earth as well as weather patterns on other planets. There was also a Zediacal Light Photography experiment on Gemini 5, one NASA hoped would solve a mystery. The Zediacal Light is a haze that is seen at twilight and before sunrise on the plane of the ecliptic. By photographing it, NASA hoped to figure out what exactly its source was. Gemini 5 accomplished its photographic goals and took some unbelievably striking images in the process. Using an unmodified Hasselblad 550C medium format camera with film magazines that could be swapped out depending on the light situation, the images were taken mostly straight down from above the target site. And perhaps because the global pollution level was lower, the colors are amazingly vivid. I've created a gallery of some of my favorite Gemini 5 mission images over on my blog Vintage Space at Popular Science. So check that out, the link is below. And let me know in the comments what your favorite Gemini 5 mission is or from any of the Gemini missions and share a link so I can see it. For Vintage Space content every day of the week, follow me on Twitter as AST Vintage Space. And with new episodes coming every Tuesday and Friday, don't forget to subscribe right here so you never miss an episode.