My weird Moon Pics for Mr. Lear

Hello Mr. Lear! (And hello all else who pop in to see my pics!)
I want to say thank you for your hard work and research, very interesting stuff. Just a quick question... is it possible I saw an explosion on the moon last spring (May 14th 2006)? I was trying to take photos of the moon through my little telescope and suddenly there was a flash and this black ring that formed at the top... traveled half way down the moon, seperated in the center and receded till all that was left were two black dots then disapeared, it happened so fast. Here are the 3 photos I took...
I am gonna try and figure out how to add them here I hope it works!

Gonna try a direct link now because the photos are huge.

Moon Pic 1

Moon Pic 2

Moon Pic 3

Here is another photo from the same night, nothing odd about this one I dont think but pretty decent for a cheap little childrens telescope eh?!
Moon Pic 4

Imagine what the big telescopes can do! Wow!

Here is the file data from the first shot:

File size: 350614 bytes
File date: 2006:05:14 21:50:30
Camera make: SONY
Camera model: CYBERSHOT
Date/Time: 2002:04:13 05:53:10
Resolution: 1600 x 1200
Flash used: No
Focal length: 17.8mm
Exposure time: 0.033 s (1/30)
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO equiv.: 400
Exposure bias: 0.70
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: program (auto)

I hope your well and having a wonderful day, thank you again. ~ J ~

wow those are some nice pictures but can you circle the anomaly in the series of three because i cant pin point them but would like to check it out.

Sure, will try and get that done as asap and I will try to make a little animation to describe it. I would have figured it was just some cloud but a flash caught my eye and my bofriend's too (who was actually taking the pics), and this line or ring moved downwards, instead of accross like a cloud would, and fast enough.. it looked like something exploded up there, it was weird.

Here is an animation (not so great, I did my best) and the pics with the weird ring around the moon pointed out.

Moon1

Moon 2

Moon 3

Was the event as fast as the animation? How long between flash and the band reaching the lowest point before starting to fade?

It was about the same rate of speed, possibly a tid bit slower... enough time to snap 3 pics then gone. I am surprised we got 3 pics. It was an odd event, maybe some natural thing, but you know when you experience something that just doesn't seem right. It made me feel weirded out indeed.

While I'm not familiar enough with the physical properties of the lunar dust and rock to say anything with certainty, the speed of the ring/shadow (based on it being a 3 second event) is about 600km/h which is well past lunar escape velocity from the surface.

This implies that whatever it was was occurring between you and the moon, not on the moon itself.

If it was slower, more along the line of taking 10-15 seconds, then it would suggest a lunar impact, with a debris ring moving outward then fading.

If we get new images of the dark side in the next couple years and they find a large impact crater, you could take you findings to an astronomy board, maybe even get a crater named after you with enough lobbying!

I slowed down the animation to about the aprox rate, this was last year though so details have gotten foggy. I just know it was weird and made me wonder what was going on up there.

reply to post by JEnigma


Hi JEnigma,

Firstly you telescope doesn't seem to have any optical correction as those images are a mirror image of the moon.

It looks to me as if the epicentre of that event may have been Endymion Crater, a possible site of interest and activity I hope no one was killed.

No optical correction... it is not an expesive telescope, more of a childs toy... so those nasa telescopes must be able to spot a needle in a hay stack on the moon, they must be hiding something!

reply to post by JEnigma


They don't need to use telescopes they have been orbiting the Moon with manned and unmanned satellites taking photos for decades, and then they go down there on foot and take a few more.

Clementine (orbital unmanned satellite) took 1.8 million alone, although we only got to see 170,000 of them, but what we see are horribly mutilated.

No Nasa have no need of telescopes they have warehouses full of images and no doubt a few million feet of video as well and heck they could probably ring one of ther buddies up there on his cell phone and plain ask "hows things going ?"

Hehehehe, I believe it! I have always thought that someone was up there since I was a child. I dont remember a time in my life where I considred we were alone in the universe, just seems impossible to me.

On photo number 4, down in the lower right corner, you can see the outline of the moon surface, plus some haziness on top of that "horizon"...

Is that proof of John Lear's theory regarding the moon having an atmosphere? Or is it due to the "cheap" physical attributes of the telescope setup?

reply to post by IronDogg



There are much better images available than this one and some do show a slight blue tinge, however it is usually accredited to Earthshine.

So bottom line no it can't be used as proof.

Better images here :

www.thelivingmoon.com...

reply to post by sherpa


Wow, those are great pics!!! Great Site!

I have got to admit, looking at your pictures again that the two black patches that were left puzzle me.

If it was indeed an impact or an explosion the ejecta seems to have concentrated in just two areas, now I am no volcanoligist, ballistic or explosives expert so maybe there is a logical explaination.

I have posted this thread over on the moon pictures thread in case anyone might want to comment on this, I for one would like a possible explaination.

Have you looked at the Moon since you took the pictures and if you have are the dark patches still there ?

reply to post by JEnigma


Mmm, yes, very strange indeed. What was that flash in the upper right corner of the first one?

I have a hunch what you saw is not really related to the Moon, but could have occurred between you and the Moon, The Moon was a fortuitious backdrop that made the phenomena visible. But that is just a guess.

Originally posted by Matyas
reply to post by JEnigma

 

Mmm, yes, very strange indeed. What was that flash in the upper right corner of the first one?

Looks to me like that flash in the animation was an artist's embellishment.

Given, the animation is to show roughly what JEnigma saw, but... the flash doesn't seem to appear in anywhere the individual pics

Was there a flash associated with this event, JEnigma?

It was a flash that caught my eye.... no it is not in any pics, it was a coincedence that the bf and I were trying to see if we could take photos of the moon through my telescope when this happened. I have no idea if the flash came from the moon itself, and I realize this is no proof of anything, but... I want to know if it is possible that what I saw was an impact or explosion of sorts. Also... I want to show how clear a photo could be through a childs cheep plastic telescope, I was so surprised! It may have been nothing, but its made me wonder for a while if anyone else has seen something like that before.

Hey I dont want to jump straight in calling the OP a hoaxer. Your post is appreciated and Im sure will get the attention it deserves.

However.. To me, it looks like a power line or telephone cable (Obviously on Earth, NOT the moon). I could be wrong but thats my observation.

50/50