Moon Oddity, October 9, 2008.

I think I may have seen "outgassing" or some other unusual phenomenon tonight while looking at the moon.

It is Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008. I am located in Toronto. A few minutes ago, at about 8:15 PM, I was outside looking at the moon, which was located ten degrees or so east of due south and at an elevation of fifty-five degrees or so.

The moon's phase is almost half way between full and new moon. Near the top of the lighted portion of it's face, at about the two o'clock position, I suddenly saw a spark of light, then another one a couple of degrees lower. These sparks were very bright, but only shone for a fraction of a second. In total I saw four or five sparks, each one lower on the moon's circumference than the last.

They appeared to the right of the face of the moon and were bright against the blackness behind the moon. The location of each successive spark shifted as if to go around the moon's image in the sky but only made it to about the five o'clock position. After that there were no more of them.

Is that outgassing? A meteor shower striking the moon?

I watched for a few moments to see if I had been watching airplane lights, but there were no more flashes. I don't think it was fire flies either or sparks from someone's barbecue. These sparks were bright, like stars.

Anyone have any ideas.


[edit on 9-10-2008 by ipsedixit]

ive got my telescope on it now.. I will keep watching for a while.... have never heard of that term... but would like to see it,, sounds pretty cool.

reply to post by ipsedixit


its a very bright moon.. those would have to be awful big bursts.. or whatever......... dont know how you would see that with the naked eye.. there is a lot of air traffic tonight... maybe you were seeing a plane fly by??

I am in TN and I have to believe I saw the same thing when I went out to feed my dogs. Initially I thought I was seeing things, so I just waived it off. Glad to know I am not the only one who saw it

But I have never heard of out gassing...this is a first. Aside from that though I would not have the slightest clue as to what it was.

No, you're not crazy... It's normal... Just the Reptilians moving it into position. Thanks for the update.

Lucky you! I'm jealous.
Transient lunar phenomenon

[edit on 9-10-2008 by Phage]

Hmm. Your post time says 8:11. I am going to assume that is for my time (US Central). I am located here in Iowa. Around that time I had just gotten off work and was riding home with a friend. To the left of the moon from where I was at that time, I swear I seen 3 meteors. Two were pretty close and nearly parallel but slightly off, the last one was right behind them. I did some googling when I got home for meteor showers, but the closest I found was Orionids, and those aren't supposed to peak until the 21st of this month.

It was pretty cool. I never used to watch the sky much until early in this summer, and I have yet to see something like it, even during the Perseids.

I hope either someone else see's something, or someone can explain what it was.

reply to post by ipsedixit

What you most probably saw was a TLP- a Transient Lunar Phenomena. They have been reported for hundreds of years. Here is a link that explains them:
www.astro.columbia.edu...

Thanks for the links guys. The stuff I saw was on the outer edge of the moon...hard to describe though...kinda like bright pumes. At any rate, atleast they have a scientific explanation.

Thanks to Phage and ProfEMeritous for the links to TLP pages.

What I saw was not cloudy or colored anything but bright, a bright white, like a star. The first spark that I saw was closer to the surface of the moon than the others. It was followed almost instantly by the second spark, which was very close to the first but further off the surface.

I thought the first one had jumped/erupted/risen from the moon's surface, but all the others spontaneously appeared and disappeared, so I wasn't as sure about the first one, except to say that it was closer to the surface when I saw it. It was also smaller, I think.

Is this what you saw Taledus?

www.space.com...
July 2007
Lunar Flash Mystery Solved: Moon Just Passing Gas


Now there's a robotic camera to watch for the TLPs

"It [the camera] will be more sensitive than the human eye/telescope combination, and more objective and persistent," Crotts said. "Hopefully it will give a better map of the TLP geographical distribution, as well as their timing and internal structure."

reply to post by ipsedixit


Kinda. I saw 6 flashes, all on the outer side of the moon. Only one of them appeared to be off of the surface, but only a fraction. But I saw this at like 7:30p (central time). It is difficult for me to say exactly the shape of anything other than they looked kinda like really tiny bright pumes of stuff, because there was some distortion from my glasses I believe. That is why I just played it off...until I saw your post. The timing of the six flashes was nearly instantanious.

reply to post by philjwolf


At first I was worried that I had seen an airplane. The Toronto Island airport is in the field of view, so to speak and it is very common to see smaller planes flying in the area to and from the airport. In fact, later (45 mins.) I did see a plane but it was the usual sort of thing as far as the lights go. It was continually observable along it's flight path.

The sparks near the moon were completely different and followed the outline of the moon's circumference. The whole display probably lasted less than a second and a half, then nothing.

if you were out side tonight did anybody see this?this,www.abovetopsecret.com...

if you were out side tonight did anybody see this?this,www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Pauligirl


Thanks for the link Pauligirl. I might try to contact the researcher mentioned and see if their camera picked up what I saw tonight.

reply to post by slayerfan


The meteor that you are talking about might be a companion of something that might have hit the moon tonight as well. Maybe we got some buckshot from the universe tonight. Not that we don't deserve it.

reply to post by Phage

Thanks for the info on tlp. Last year I bought a new pair of binoculars and decided to take a look at the moon the evening I got them. When I looked there was a very bright something sticking out the edge of the moon at about 8 o'clock. When I say bright I do mean bright, it was almost hard to look at and pretty big. I lowered the binos a minute to think about it and it was of course gone when I looked again.

I was about on board with John Lear after that one