Active X is for Windows Media Player
Page Last Updated: 11/19/2008 02:38 PM (Pacific Time)
Possible Craft in Lunar Orbit
The following clip shows an object entering the camera's field of view
from left to right just above the middle of the screen.
Tracking it's heading, it appears to be in lunar orbit.
I say this because, of the satellites I've captured so far,
all are large and pass by the FOV very fast.
And Near-Earth orbiting satellites I've captured are clear enough to see
the "ribs" in the sectioned solar panels.
(See these frames)
900Kb BMP 900 Kb BMP
Solar Panels Close-Up
What I Don't Think It Is...
Meteor or Asteroid? No, much too slow.
Aircraft in our atmosphere? No, Check airplane clip below caught the same night.
Space junk? No. I have since been in contact with the Director of the Astronomy Division at Table Mountain
and he reviewed the full res version. Five minutes later he called me and needed particulars; location of recording, scope size, time etc.
Then he checked a site called "Heavens Above", (data on everything outside our atmosphere) and said the
only object in that location was an old booster rocket that would have passed by but eight minutes earlier in our orbit and it's tumbling.
I asked him if he thought this object is in our orbit and he said, "No".
I asked, "Could it be in the Moon's orbit?"
He said, "If it's in lunar orbit, recorded at the stated resolution and with your size scope, it would have to be 10 miles long!"
That woke me up but he still didn't answer the question, so I asked him again if he thought it was in lunar orbit..?
He said, "I don't know".
I thought that answer was purposely vague. If anybody would know, it would be him!
NASA/JPL would not hire someone to be the Director of the Astronomy Division
if he couldn't tell if an object was or wasn't in lunar orbit!
That was pretty much the extent of our conversation.
I got the impression the subject clammed him up because just before this conversation, he was explaining
to me about the original reason I contacted him. I had sent him one of dozens of Hale Bopp
photos I took. One of them has 2 blue streaks in it resembling asteroid streaks. Here it is:
(Taken with Ricoh SR-10 w/300mm telephoto. 20 sec. time-exposure.)
He was very talkative about the above photo.
(Turns out the streaks are not scratches on the negative as he suggested).
So I asked him to check out the clip of the object.
And after he collected and reviewed all the data, I think it disturbed him.
Being a NASA/JPL employee, he wouldn't tell the public anything without authorization anyway.
Not only that, who is going to give authorization to a scientist to tell the world...
"Yes, it's 10 miles long, orbiting the Moon and we don't know
who it belongs too!?"
1280x1024 reduced to 640x480
Cropped from the middle of a 60 second clip.
Fly-By Only
Download Fly-By Only WMV (1.9Mbs)
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Craft Avi conversion
Download Craft (6.3Mbs)
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Repeats & Half Speed
Download Repeats and Half Speed WMV (4.57Mbs)
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Another "Object"
Here is another object of a different size and speed.
It also looks to be in Lunar Orbit
640X480
This one shows the scope nudged just as the object comes into view from the left. I was reaching for the
controller hanging on the scope tripod and nudged the back of the scope in doing so.
(I've made a couple of these types of blunders but I'm getting better)
I was about to slew the scope up for another pass as you will see after the object passes by.
If I had seen it at the time of the recording, it was slow enough that I would liked to have tried to follow it.
2nd Object
Download 2nd Object (2.4Mbs WMV)
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2nd Object AVI conversion
Download 2nd Object Conversion (4.7Mbs) AVI
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Airliner
Here's an airliner passing through FOV.
It's distance is approximately 50 miles out.
It's recognizable from the wings, tail and the heat signature.
Note: As I repositioned the scope for this clip, I neglected to re-level the camera
attached to it, so the image is tilted about 45 degrees. (another blunder)
The plane passes by at the bottom left corner of screen
as shown in the inactive thumb, 9 seconds into the clip.
1280x1024 reduced to 640x480
Download Airplane (1.27Mb) WMV
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Watch The Moon Closely
Facts Are The Only Truth
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