An unbelievable “science-fiction” view of our Home Planet from about 100,000 km away seen in a very slender crescent illuminated by sunlight from the side and basked in the beam of a lens flare. With the Earth presenting such a thin crescent, the Sun is very near the camera’s field of view. At the same moment the astronauts could see a full Moon receding behind them. The photograph was taken with the Hasselblad mounted with a 105mm lens and magazine 96/Q probably just after the last sleep period of the crew before coming back to Earth. The Earth takes up about 10° of the astronauts' field of view, about 20 times that of the full Moon as seen from the Earth. In the final hours of the flight home, the spacecraft is moving towards the Pacific on the eastern side of Earth's disc. By the time they land, that area will have moved around into daylight. Because Endeavour's flight path has carried it over the night-time side of the Earth, only the slightest glimpse of the daylight side can be seen. Most of the “view” is that of the Southern Pacific hemisphere, where it is midnight in Australia and the mid-winter darkness persists over the south pole. (Apollo Flight Journal at 286:52:20 GET).

From the mission transcript as the crew woke up for their final day before landing and got their first view of Earth from the returning spacecraft: 286:39:03 Public affairs Officer (Mission Control): This is Apollo Control. Apparently the crew of Apollo 15 is very definitely awake after having the Hawaiian War chant come up the air waves. The heart rates on the cardioscope here jumped somewhat on the Flight Surgeon's console as the music began. That particular version of Hawaiian War Chant done by Al Kealoha Perry. Apollo 15 now 53,782 feet - as you were - miles - nautical miles [99,604 km] from Earth, approaching at a velocity of 7,940 feet per second [2,420 m/s]. 8 hours, 35 minutes till splashdown. [...] 286:51:46 Scott: Houston, Endeavour. 286:51:52 Allen: Go ahead. 286:51:57 Scott: Well, we just got our first view of the Earth this morning, and, can you believe it's getting larger and it's getting smaller? We see just a very, very thin sliver of a very large round ball. 286:52:20 Allen: Roger, Dave. I believe that.