The Command Service Module separated from the third stage and turned around and moved in to dock with the lunar module.

Shortly after docking with the lunar module, the crew turned their TV camera and still cameras toward the Earth. Astronauts Stafford and Young described the view for Capsule Communicator/astronaut Charlie Duke in Mission Control.

Stafford: I figure right there you should be able to see the United States, Mexico, Baja California.

Duke: Hey, it's really beautiful, Tom. It's coming in great.

Stafford: You ought to see it up here, Charlie.

Young: We've got the whole globe there.

Stafford: Yes, you're looking right at the United States there.

Duke: Roger.

Stafford: See the Rocky Mountains sticking out? Baja California? Can't tell whether you have any smog in LA or not, but Alaska is pretty much socked in.

Duke: Roger. It's really a beautiful picture.

Stafford: You can see cloud covers the northern part of Alaska. Cloud covers over the northeastern part of Canada, and I can see out into the New England area. We've got a low pressure area out there.

Duke: The color is fantastic. It really is.

Stafford: Okay. And it looks like the Rocky Mountains are orange colored to me. The rest of U.S., Baja California, that really stands out as all brownish, and the oceans are blue; but there are so many clouds out to the northeast of the United States, you can't believe it. Covers the Far East over to Europe as far as you can see.