Nice post ↑ undo, good finds of some nice Aristarchus Crater (Ari.C). The 1st image is from an amateur astronomer that has some great pics, some
really detailed and w/sharp resolution.
Ari.C clearly DOES change appearance often and is the source of many
LUNAR TRANSIENT
PHENOMENA (LTP) over the years, decades and even centuries!
Here are reports of sightings (almost like UFO sightings, in fact the link is FROM MUFOR, "Malta UFO Research" interestingly enough) going back
centuries, an interesting read ►
www.mufor.org...
Some sightings occurring on Ari.C:
1956, Violet glare whole length of E wall and around E wall bright spot; violet tint N and NE of crater
1940, Distinguished crater in dark hemisphere as a bright spot
1821, Luminous appearance on dark side; 6th to 7th mag, 3' to 4' diameter
1789, Bright points seen during observation of star occultation
The different appearance of Ari.C and many spots on the moon can be caused by many reasons, some of the most common sense ones are:
∟Lunar Phase Differences
∟Sun Angle and Earth Angle of Incidence
∟Viewing Angle of Incidence
∟Location of Observer (if from Earth, images may differ from those taken ON the moon and from those taken in orbit about the moon)
∟Camera Settings
∟Type of Camera
∟Filters Used
∟Location on Earth, Environmental Differences from Photo to Photo
∟Angle of the Feature in Relation to the Observer Effects
∟Solar Abnormalities (Solar Flares etc..)
∟Many Many More.
So yes Ari.C is definitely one odd crater, but some of the above may help explain some of the appear oddities. As far as a cover-up, well we now have
images taken by amateur astronomers, and unless these people are all "in on it"...That's highly highly doubtful!
Let's look at LTP's a little bit, it's gonna take more than this one post to talk about them that's for sure, but anyway...
I'll make this statement 1st: "Most LTP activity occurs along the edges of the maria, near volcanic features, like domes, sinuous rilles, and
craters with dark halos or floors."
This statement is well supported. See the following (all graphs permissible and © 2004 by David O. Darling, Director L.T.P. Research)
www.ltpresearch.org...
The following data is from a study of more than 2000 LTP events throughout the course of solid tangible LTP event record keeping, all based LTP around
the area of ARISTARCHUS CRATER, presented in some excellent graphs. These graphs will clearly show that the TLP events occur according to LUNAR PHASE,
LUNAR AGE, SEASONAL EARTH CHANGES and other natural cyclical changes.
One thing to note is that FULL MOONS OCCUR in the MOONS AGE on the 15th or 16th DAYS OF THE LUNAR AGE, or PHASE. It's important when looking at these
graphs....
Age of the moon meaning phase of the moon roughly. vs. Number of events. Seems to be a correlation between the age of the moon and the observed
LTP's.
Shows the specific subset of LTP, "brightening type of LTP"
And yet another type of LTP, Bluish
The lunar transient phenomena called violet or bluish as it will be referred to in this web site dominates the lunation on two specific periods. The
first is on day twelve and second on day sixteen, with the Full Moon taking place on the day fifteen.
The reddish type more rare than the blue type, about half as much.
The data indicates that the reddish events are reported at the time of lunar sunrise on this crater and a second jump on the day after Full Moon..
This Red LTP type seems to occur most with a FULL MOON time of lunar phase.
The gaseous type of LTP...
The gaseous events is a special classification. This phenomena can be classified as a red or darkening event but if it behaves like a gaseous medium
then both these classifications are given. Again the most active day takes place one day after Full Moon.
So it seems most activity occurs around a full moon, again correlating well with LTP's are associated with LUNAR PHASE (full moons). Another FULL
MOON CORRELATION.
The full LTP types graphed against each other...
Vs. Time of the year, observations made according to differing time.
When looking at the lunar transient phenomena reports by months of the year, we find a continued increase until May then a drop. The month of July is
spike may be caused by the landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
So it seems fairly regular occurrences of these LTP, according to natural cyclical events.
With regards to EARTHSHINE, or when the areas on the moon are not exposed to sunlight directly, but only by the light reflected from Earth (from the
sun):
This graph shows the distribution of the L.T.P. classification called brightening. As you can see this phenomena is mainly reported as an Earthshine
event. The number of events reported on the graph for the fourteenth day are considerably less.
So it seems that during ONLY EARTHSHINE, LTP events are still seen in the region of Ari.C. So what the astronauts may have seen are these LTP events
regardless of lunar exposure to Earthshine or direct sunshine.
Also more information and possible causes of TLP's (and zorgon you'll like this one)...:p
Some LTP phenomena may be caused by sunlight interacting with the lunar soil. On October 30, 1963, James Greenacre and Edward Barr observed red
spots sparkling on the southwest wall of the crater Aristarchus, the east wall of Schroter's Valley, and a hill between them (S&T: December, 1963,
page 316). The phenomena was observed visually by others and recorded spectroscopically as well. At the same lunar phase a month later, Greenacre and
Barr saw a similar event. Since sunrise on these features occurs when the Moon is about 11 days old, Greenacre thought that the low lunar Sun was
somehow responsible. Indeed, thermoluminesence mat be the cause. Gases in the lunar soil, frozen during the night, could heat up and escape near
sunrise.
Could high-energy solar particles impacting the Moon also trigger LTP activity? Shortly after a large flare erupted on the Sun in 1963, Zdenek Kopal
and Thomas Rackham at Pic du Midi Observatory in southern France photographed a local brightening around the craters Copernicus, Kepler, and
Aristarchus. Kopal proposed that energetic particles from the flare caused lunar rocks to fluorescence. Such activity might be expected especially at
full phase when the Moon passes through the Earth's magnetosphere, where solar wind particles become trapped.
►Makes sense to me. Energetic particles interact with either gases escaping the lunar interior (the moon is not completely dead in my view) and/or
interact with the lunar geology to enable fluorescence. Also particularly TELLING is the above quote agrees with the GRAPH data presented, that LTP's
correlate to higher occurrences DURING FULL MOON PHASE. Again here "...Such activity might be expected especially at full phase when the Moon passes
through the Earth's magnetosphere, where solar wind particles become trapped."
►Sound like a crazy cause for these crazy LTP's. Nah. See below-Ran outa room again! ▼
[edit on 27-5-2007 by greatlakes]
continuing, this one is from: 
hmmm 
