THE JOURNEY BEGINS

On the 20th July 1969 the whole world watched live on television as Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon. Armstrong was ex aviator veteran of the Korean War and former pilot of the Gemini 8 missions. His skills and experience finally gave him the position of the Commander of Apollo 11 where he was joined by crewmates Micheal Collins and Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon in the Lunar Module [Eagle] whilst Collins orbited the Moon in the Module [Columbia]. Armstrong will always be remembered for those famous words "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." The rest is history - or the history they wanted you to hear.

Long before any Moon landings of any kind, observations of unusual activity had been recorded on the Moon and from this came the term "Chronological reported lunar events." The Moon it seemed was not the dead body we were all made to believe. The official report which was documented by Patrick Moore and Barbara Middlehurst in 1968 and updated in 1971 documented a different story. It was an amazing insight into Moon activities over the centuries.

As early as 1671 on the 12th November, D Casino observed small whitish clouds around the crater P Tatus and in more recent years, the NASA Lunar orbiter [Plate 48 NASA Lunar Orbitor V NO MR 168] photographed what seemed to be cone shaped clouds as well as Cirrocumulus clouds in an area of the crater Vitello, Mare Imbrium. The crater has a diameter of 30 miles and walls rising 4,500 feet and is surrounded by small hills and craters. It would seem almost ridiculous to suggest we were observing a warm frontal system but the clouds do seem to show rippling effect as they pass over the crater. NASA refers to the picture as 'having marks on it'. What the picture does create is argument and debate because those marks could possibly be clouds. This picture is one of many unusual pictures showing strange events on and around the Moon and this makes it harder to explain them as just being errors or marks and in some cases transmission problems. The crater Alphonsus has had well documented evidence of unusual blur when monitored. N.A Kozyrev, of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in the U.S.S.R. was monitoring the crater Alphonsus using a 50inch reflector on the 3rd November 1958 when he noticed that the central peak had become blurred. What had been quite notable was the reddish cloud on the central peak which soon went very bright and then dim. Alphonsus soon returned to its normal self. It seems observations by astronomers in past centuries were well documented and good records kept. One of the main talking points was red spots, red streaks and bright areas etc.

These have been observed around craters such as Plato and Aristachus. Observations go back hundreds of years and these activities lead us to ask questions.

There have been more than 300 reports relating to the Aristachus area alone. Aristachus stands on a rocky plateau, with walls 2000ft high. As early as March 1783, W.Hershel and Lind observed red spots within the vicinity of the crater. Observations continued with Shroter and Van Bruhl from 1784 to 1787 noting unusual bright areas of light in and around craters. Then on 13th February 1835, again unusual bright spots were observed by Gruithuisen.

It is almost tempting to say that going to the Moon in 1969 was more than just a Cold War statement; perhaps it was to make observations of the Moon's many secrets that others had reported. Sightings continued throughout the decades, all being documented and recorded.

In 1963 on the 30th October two observers, Greenacre and Bom, saw three-red spots, one inside Aristachus and the other two nearby in the Schroter Valley. The entire display lasted over 45 minutes.

The Apollo 11 Mission even reported a strange fluorescence towards Aristachus, as the following conversation revealed:

Armstrong: "Hey, Houston, I'm looking north up towards Aristachus now and I can't really tell at that distance whether I am looking at Aristachus, but there's an area there that is considerably more illuminated than the surrounding area. It just has, seems to have a slight amount of fluorescence to it."

Houston [McCondles]: "Roger, eleven, we copy."

Aldrin: "Looking out the same area now, well at least there is one wall of the crater that seems to be more illuminated than the others. I'm not sure that I am really identifying any phosphorescence, but that definitely is lighter than anything else in the neighborhood."

Houston [McCondles]: "Can you discern any difference in the color of the illumination and is that an inner or outer wall from the crater? Over."

Aldrin: "I judge an inner wall in the crater."

Collins: "No there doesn't appear to be any colour involved in it Bruce."

Twenty minutes passed and the signal from Apollo 11 was lost as it moved around the dark side. When it reappeared, nothing else was said. You would have thought that this particular event would have made great news considering how many observations had been recorded in and around Aristachus, but alas no. You immediately wonder 'why go to the Moon, see amazing things and then keep it a secret?' My goodness the Moon is not exactly just down the road, yet the conversation seems to be lost to the general public for whatever reason.

We have observed unusual activity from Prolemoreus, Mare Crisium, Posidonius, Plato-to-Bessel, Tycho, Longrenus and the list goes on. I find it frustrating that this has been taking place over a long period of time and we are still in a situation where the public are not informed of these facts. Surely we should be made more aware of these anomalies and what I consider to be very important pieces of information. I found it difficult to obtain data as it was not as readily available as it should be.

NASA including the Russians, photographed and most probably filmed unusual phenomena on the Moon, which has never been made public knowledge. It seems to still stay a secret rather than to be made a historic scientific find. You feel as though somebody did not want information releasing and that it was best for them to stay silent than create a storm.

As you can see from the next conversation, the questions outweigh the answers. The mission was that of Apollo 16 on 22nd April 1972.

Duke: "Tony, what is the other peak?"

Capsule Communicator: "Right of the cosmic ray experiment."

Duke: "Ok, I'll cross F-11 250 at 15"

Young: "Ok, Houston, I just picked up this white rock, but it has a black layer on the back of it, a thick black glass and it's about [garble] specimen."

Capsule Communicator: Scramble. "Hey, fellow, Ken was just flying over and he saw a flash on the side of Descortes-he probably got a glint of you?"

Duke: "Oh sure, that's us. Men of miracles. We're dusty."

Young: "Don't step right here, Charlie, there's a splatter, a glass splatter. A whole big bubble of it, isn't it?"

This particular conversation makes it quite clear that the flash seen wasn't anything to do with the astronauts on the Moon. I am quite sure they were well trained in observation as well as conclusions.

Back in 1972, NASA announced that it would be studying LTP [Lunar Transient Phenomena]. Basically NASA would require anyone who had the equipment and knowledge to carry out a study of the Moon in detail. There were thirty two responses; these people would have to study four areas of the Moon that had shown LTP. The frustrating factor of this initiative was that not enough people reported back therefore it came to a rather abrupt end. This just left us with the 1968 report and 1971 updates as documented evidence.

The Apollo Missions did find all kinds of interesting things which were made public. This included rocks, dust and crystals etc. as part of the many 75,000 lunar samples that were collected. Studies carried out on the majority of the pieces found materials that were composed of glass drops from a meteorite, to a large breccia encased in molten rock. Many of the materials would be ideal for industry, including silicon for computers and soil which could be used to produce glass in a low gravity environment.

An interesting factor is the abundance of materials. Derived from Moon dust, NASA scientists recently discovered that Helium 3 holds the key to a cheaper energy source. Dr John Santarius of Wisconsin University came to the conclusion that 25 tons of Helium 3 could power the whole of the United States for a year. When you consider the Space shuttle payload bay can carry that amount, things become more plausible.

It is rather amazing how the Moon is more shrouded in secrecy now than it was before we landed on it. Perhaps our closest neighbour has more to offer than we would like to make public? The information that is released is always trivial news - never a big headline. In some cases it does make the bigger pages of the newspapers, such as the story of water being found on the Moon.

What is interesting is how a number of astronomers and scientists have in the past clearly said we would never find water on the Moon. On the 3rd December 1996, frozen water had been found deep in a crater on the south pole. The probe [Clementine] which was military, discovered an area of water twice the size of Puerto Rico and had a depth of 1.3 kilometers. This finding of water changes everything if you want to colonise the Moon. This whole thing about water reminds me of what was actually discovered back in the 1970's on the Apollo Missions which caused great debate at the time.

NASA Assistant Director of Lunar Science Richard Allenby quoted "There is no evidence in the rocks or geochemistry that water exists". This statement was soon to be quashed when Dr. John Freeman and Dr. H. Ken Hills announced that great eruptions of water vapour clouds had been detected which covered an area of 100 square miles of the Moon's surface and had lasted 14 hours. When you consider the strange photographs of clouds seen on the Moon you can easily make the connections. NASA decided to explain the whole event off as being water tanks from the Apollo descent stages. The science team reacted by pointing out that both the Apollo 12 and 14 missions had been located over 180km away so they could not have brought the water themselves. Things really started getting heated when NASA announced it was merely 'pee' released from the space capsules. The Apollo 17 Mission on December 29th 1972 reveals once again an interesting conversation mentioning water:

Capsule Communicator: "Roger. America, we're tracking you on the map here, watching it."

Lunar Module Pilot: "O.K., Al Buruni has got variations on its floor. Variations in the lights and in its albedo. It almost looks like a pattern as if the water were flowing up on a beach. Not in great areas, but in small areas around the southern side, and the part that looks like the water-washing pattern is a much lighter albedo, although I cannot see any real source for it. The texture, however, looks the same."

Capsule Communicator: "America, Houston. We'd like you to hold off switching to OMNI Charlie until we can cue you on that."

Commander: "Wilco."

Lunar Module Pilot: "O.K 96:03. Now we're getting some clear –looks like pretty clear high watermarks on this __"

Commander Module Pilot: "There's high watermarks all over the place there."

Lunar Module Pilot: "On the north part of Tranquillitatis. That's Maraldi there, isn't it? Are you sure we're 13 miles up?"

Capsule Communicator: "You're 14 to be exact, Ron."

Lunar Module Pilot: "I tell you there's some mare, ride or scarps that are very, very sinuous-just passing one. They not only cross the low planar areas but go right up the side of a crater in one place and a hill in another. It looks very much like a constructional as I would want to see it."

Things do not make sense, so many astronomers and scientists seem to want to stand out from the crowd and yet something holds them back. The Moon is so close and yet so far from our minds, it holds more secrets and has the answers we probably are looking for. The whole water debate was just brushed aside and yet decades later we find water officially accepted and found by Clementine.

Without a doubt technology has brought the Moon closer than ever with the advance of computers and general telescopes. The telescopes available to the general public are superb and can see most night sky objects with a trained eye and patience. Computers and digital technology combined give us pictures and film. With new technology advancing all the time, the telescope now sees further and clearer than before. More people are reporting unusual phenomena. I think it's time to go back to the Apollo Missions and look at everything again in more detail.

The possibilities are endless, especially with new players such as China and India releasing new footage and images of the Moon. Even Russia envisages returning to the Moon and building a lunar base. At last it seems like the truth is about to be revealed.

THE SECRET

So why did we go to the Moon? Was it a Cold War thing or maybe something else? Let's imagine that going to the Moon was more about who got the treasure first. We have already looked at the facts on Chronological reported lunar events, which on their own were one good reason to go to the Moon.

But what if an alien species was already on the Moon?

On 14th December 1968, Major Patrick Powers [Head of the United States Army Space Development Program], made some bold statements: "Human landings may be challenged" and "The first man to reach the Moon must be prepared to fight for the privilege of landing."

Back in 1962, Dr Carl Sagan was the adviser on extraterrestrial life to the US forces. He stated that mankind must face the probability that beings from elsewhere in the Universe have, or have had, bases on the averted side of the Moon.

Those were very powerful words for such high profile people at the time. They were aware of something that was not public knowledge then and even now.

I think the most interesting discussed phenomena of the 1950's was the artificial bridge. It was the late John O'Neil, former Science Editor of the New York Herald Tribune who really caused a big stir in lunar observations. In July 1953, he reported what he called a 'gigantic artificial arch' 12 miles long known as the 'Lunar Bridge'. This was later confirmed by Dr H.P. Wilkins at the Mount Wilson Observatory, USA. The bridge was viewed a month later under good conditions but had disappeared.

It is interesting that so many people were hungry to discover the Moons secrets and until we landed there, they were not willing to divulge anything. The thoughts that must have been going through their minds must have been amazing.

Another interesting yet controversial story relates to the spikes on the Moon. On November 18th 1966, a lunar orbiter left Cape Kennedy. Three days later, from a height of 30 miles, the instruments telephoto lens was focused on the Moon's surface and the camera activated. On a small area of the Sea of Tranquility, a plain just off the Moons centre, the camera picked up six spike- like projections, casting shadows across the dusty surface. They were called 'some of the most unusual features of the Moon ever photographed' by the scientists in charge of the project. However, they felt the spikes to be natural. Mr William Blair, a Seattle anthropologist and a member of the Boeing company's biotechnology unit, thought otherwise. He maintained they were in a geometric pattern "similar to columns built by man".