Uncorrelated Lunar
Object: U092196
Report by The Lunascan Project
(Francis
Ridge) & VGL (Lan Fleming)
One of over 400
frames
Solarized frame-grab
of object apparently
orbiting the Moon.
/ulo092196/u092196j.avi
Frontiers of Science/ papers/ridge/v01n02b.pdf
Date: September 21, 1996
- Session #: 24
- Lunar range: 228,722 miles, 95.75% of mean
- Age: 9.5 days of 29.53 day cycle
- Phase: 68.9% waxing
- Orientation: Northern hemisphere up, normal
- Sky conditions: Clear with a little haze, lunar halo.
- 7:26 PM local time, 00H26m CUT.
Francis Ridge:
During routine scans of the lunar surface with the 16"
scope equipped
with a CCD camera, The Lunascan Project team tracked an unknown object
near the SE lunar limb for twenty seconds. The Moon was under HPS Mode
(High-Power Scanning) at 400 power, putting the surface at less than
600
miles. The scope/camera system had been in manual control to the limb,
then used the Earth's rotation to slowly scan to the terminator. Once
in
the darkness of the lunar night the system was manually pulled back to
the limb for another scan, each slice slightly different.
At the BOS (Beginning Of Session, 7:00 PM) the numbers for
auto track
had been routinely punched into the DOB Driver II computer. However,
since
the auto-track mode causes short L-shaped jerky movements during
taping,
the computer is placed in Pan which is manual. As team members watched
the outside monitor, they noticed in the blackness of space to the
right
of the Moon, a very brief bright speck. Due to deterioration of the
weather
the session was terminated at 10:00 PM and the datatapes rewound.
At 00H26m CUT, queued on the tape, was the object. At first
glance
it looked somewhat like a satellite of Jupiter. In fact, the object was
about that size. But no star, let alone any moon of Jupiter, had ever
survived
the glare of the lunar limb. Not once during the last year and 23 other
sessions had the scope picked up anything that close. Immediately the
facility's
main computer was booted up and EZ Cosmos was loaded. The status screen
read the current date and time. The exact time of the incident was
punched
in and the sky chart was put onscreen. Upon zooming in on the Moon and
sky sector, to see if there was a bright star or planet nearby that
could
account for the object, it was determined that nothing conspicuous was
anywhere near the Moon. Before the end of the hour a frame-grabbed
image
had been placed on The Lunascan Project web site. By Monday afternoon a
complete report was filed.
- Analysis shows shows target acquisition for less than a
second, loss
of target for around six seconds, re-acquistion and recording for 13
seconds
before the scope/cam panned by Earth rotation let the object leave the
FOV at upper right. Almost 400 frames.
- The FOV at HPS 400 was 306 miles wide by 241 miles.
- Total time of observation was was 20 seconds.
- The coordinates of the unknown were about: RA 19'.008
Dec -19 degrees
18' 00 Alt 32.00 Azm 172.00
- Further checks with the brightness control turned up
showed the lunar
surface features tracking with the object. Therefore the object's
apparent
motion was zero.
- The object's apparent distance from the lunar limb was
37 arc-seconds,
less than the apparent diameter of the planet Jupiter.
- The object's size calculates out to be comparable to
that of Ganymede
and measures about 2 mm on the monitor, or a little over 2.375 miles in
diameter at lunar range. With the help of numerous consultants the
following
was determined: In general, the FOV is so restricted that SOME relative
motion should have been noticeable for just about everything.
- Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite eliminated. Object's
geocentric angular
speed is much too slow. The orbital period of LEO satellites are
approximately
80 minutes, which is a geocentric angular velocity of 360 degrees every
1.5 hours or 0.075 degrees per second. In the 20 seconds the object was
observed, it should have moved about 1.5 degrees or three lunar
diameters
(the angular diameter of the moon as observed from the Earth is 1/2
degree).
- Geosynchronous satellite. A GSS would move .004 degrees
per second relative
to the fixed stars (360 degrees in 24 hours). In 20 seconds, it would
move
0.08 degrees, which is larger than the FOV. If the object were a
geosynchronous
satellite, the movement should be easily noticeable because the object
would move out of the FOV entirely in 20 seconds.
- Object cannot be a star or planet. No star or planet has
ever been videotaped
during any of the previous 23 sessions due to the lunar glare. However,
the moon's monthly orbital period would cause the moon to move away
from
a fixed star or planet at a rate of .00015 degrees per second,
approximately,
IF it were possible to record such an event.
- Balloon. Potentially motionless, a balloon drifting with
the air currents
at a leisurely 10mph 100 miles away would still move .03 degrees in 20
seconds, or half the FOV. Since the telescope was elevated 32 degrees
above
the horizontal, that would also put this hypothetical balloon at an
altitude
of about 50 miles.
- Meteor. The lunar escape velocity of 5400mph is the
minimum velocity
at which a meteoroid can approach the moon. That is 1.5 times the
maximum
lunar orbital velocity of 3400, and it is almost 10% of your FOV. The
majority
of objects in the solar system would approach the moon at much greater
speeds.
Lan Fleming:
Trajectories could be envisioned that could make such an
object appear
stationary relative to the moon for 20 seconds to an Earth-based
observer,
but the data now appears to be more in favor of an object in lunar
orbit.
A maximum speed of about 3400mph for something in lunar orbit
translates
into an angular velocity as viewed from Earth of .0002 degrees per
second.
In the 20 second time span in which the object was in view, that would
produce an angular displacement relative to the moon of only .004
degrees,
or about 6% of the .06 degree FOV. But this is only for objects
orbiting
near the surface of the moon. The speed decreases rapidly with
altitude,
which would make the motion increasingly difficult to detect. As for
non-orbiting
meteoroids, trajectories could again be envisioned that would hide the
true motion of the object in the lunar reference frame from an
Earth-based
observer. But the set of possible paths that would do this is going to
be larger for a slow-moving orbiter than for a faster-moving
non-orbiter.
This seems to favor the interpretation of the object as being a lunar
orbiter.
It is also unlikely that astronomers would miss a 2-mile long asteroid
that got this close to Earth!
Fran Ridge:
- Asteroid. If this were an asteroid there should have
been some movement.
JPL says something like 8-arcsec in 20-sec time-exposure is not
unusual.
And we're not assuming an asteroid as a natural lunar orbiter. That
would
be nearly impossible.
- Object in lunar orbit. Mascons prevent anything from
orbiting very long
without corrections. If it's in orbit, it is highly reflective,
probably
much smaller than it appears, and man-made.
- Internal reflection. Cam/scope bounce at beginning of
track shows object
and Moon in-sync, similar to motion you'd get from observing Jupiter
and
it's moons. This is not a reflection of any kind.
Lan Fleming:
The lack of apparent motion relative to the moon could be
most easily
explained by an orbiter. While the low-altitude orbital speed at the
moon
is such that an object would move a maximum distance of 5% of the
telescope
FOV in the 20-second observation time, there are two points in a lunar
orbit at which the object would appear to be motionless relative to the
moon as observed from Earth: the point in the orbit where the object is
moving directly toward the Earth and the point where it is moving
directly
away. The two points would be close to the positions where the object
was
farthest from the moon's limb and are the only places where the object
would likely be seen at all. Assuming the object was at the apparent
45-mile
altitude above the moon in the video image and had a two-hour orbital
period,
there would only be a period of 11 minutes between when the object
emerged
from behind the moon and when it moved across the moon's disk where it
would be lost in the direct moon light. Within that 11-minute time
span,
the object might be visible for only a few seconds at its farthest
distance
from the moon's limb before it became lost in the bright moonlight
diffused
though the Earth's atmosphere close to the limb. (The image that
Francis
has on his web site shows this atmospheric haze around the moon.) Such
an object might therefore appear suddenly and disappear just as
suddenly
after the 20-second period that Mr. Ridge observed the object. That
would
make an object orbiting the moon a more likely explanation than an
asteroid
travelling straight toward Earth. The only problem with the orbiter
hypothesis
is that the chances of the moon capturing an asteroid seem to be close
to nil. It's low gravitation would make captures rare, and the orbit
would
quickly degrade due to the the gravitional anomalies associated with
mascons.
The estimate I've heard is that any orbiting object will either escape
the moon or impact it within about a year.
Lan Fleming:
I wrote:
"There are two points in a lunar
orbit at which the object
would appear to be motionless relative to the moon as observed from
Earth:
the point in the orbit where the object is moving directly toward the
Earth
and the point where it is moving directly away. The two points would be
close to the positions where the object was farthest from the moon's
limb
and are the only places where the object would likely be seen at all."
I
should have qualified that a bit. This would only apply for an object
in
a lunar orbit if the orbital plane were perpendicular to the the plane
of the telescope field of view. If the orbital plane were instead
parallel
to the FOV plane, the object would appear to be circling the moon at
more-or-less
constant altitude and speed. The orbital plane would probably be
somewhere
between the two extremes. However, most asteroids travel in the
ecliptic
plane, so if one happened to get captured by the moon, its orbital
plane
would be in the ecliptic. Since the ecliptic is very nearly
perpendicular
to the plane of a telescope FOV, the orbiting object would appear
nearly
motionless from Earth at its maximum distance from the moon's limb. A
second
possibility might be some tank on some probe venting for some reason.
The
resulting gas cloud could be visible from Earth before it disappeared
after
a matter of seconds. And, in fact, the report reminds me the cloud
people
saw when Apollo 13's tank gave way -- a spot of light that was gone
again
in seconds. (That one was easily visible to the naked eye, I think I
remember
... but it was 100,000 miles away, not 250,000 miles.)
One-hour video documentary with report and footage on
ULO-092196
available. Shipped Priority Mail. Send money order for $23 to:
The Lunascan Project
618 Davis Drive
Mt. Vernon, IN 47620
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