In 1958, Russian
astronomers observed strange lights in the crater Alphonsus. On November 2, 1958, the
Russian astronomer Nikolai A. Kozyreyobserved
an apparent half-hour "eruption" that took place on the central
peak of Alphonsus craterusing a
48-inch (122-cm) reflector telescope equipped with a spectrometer.
During this time, the obtained spectra showed evidence for bright
gaseous emission bands due to the molecules C2and
C3.While
exposing his second spectrogram, he noticed "a marked increase in
the brightness of the central region and an unusual white colour."
Then, "all of a sudden the brightness started to decrease" and the
resulting spectrum was normal.
Mission 55 of over a hundred sessions was planned and executed by
the colongitude and weather conditions favorable to the target
site. At the time, the TCCM (Telescope & Crew Control Module)
was equipped with the new SSI camera running at 400 power,
providing breathtaking views with a 600 mile SIMRANGE, and 400
mile FOV. What this means is the moon is 240,000 miles from us and
our scanning system took us within 600 miles of the lunar surface.
We scanned the target area for an hour and a half. During the
second 30-min segment the sun was coming up on Alphonsus' central
peak. To watch and study this WWV-time-dubbed mission, go to
Mission
researchers only viewed these missions once, so now we are
asking other researchers to view them for comment and/or
criticisms or other findings. In the days ahead we will be
adding segment 1 and 3 to be viewed. Segment 3 includes a
special treat, the rendevous with the planet Jupiter. Other
files, data, images, and papers can be found at: sessions submittals/ridge/Alphonsus/.
