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CRISIUM DOME / MALIBU PART III

COPYRIGHT 1998 STEVE TROY

PREFACE

This is an update on data reported on in my second report Crisium Dome Part II posted in early 1998 on this site. To facilitate in the understanding of this report, readers should access it. This report will reference my analog confirmation of a lunar anomaly seen and discussed in Report II but that now is seen from a different Apollo missions photography than the photography mentioned in that report.

As a brief background I can say that after analog research and discovery of the Crisium Dome and other Crisium anomalies from 1997 to early 1998, I made prints from accessed NSSDC negatives and sent them to Mike Bara - the data subsequently corroborated, enhanced, and discussed in joint reports posted on this, his site. Information discussed concerned the results of raw data investigation of Apollo 10 and 11 Hasselblad photography of this region.

In my second report, figure #3 showed a hard architectural-like artifact that was seen located to the west (left) of a bright crater on the north Crisium shore on Hasselblad AS11-42-6223, an oblique photograph. No computer enhancement was necessary to initially see this remarkable structure. The geometry was undeniable and its rectalinearity and design unmistakable - - completely out of the realm of natural stratigraphy. I discovered it by accident and dubbed it MALIBU, as it resembles homes on the hills of that terrestrial California area. The scale is, of course, much larger. It is sunlit and faces south-southeast out across the maria.

Malibu from AS11-42-6223

It is isolated and architectural in nature and is inset into the mountain conforming to its slope. There are recessed internal and external horizontal and vertical trusses/supports. To the east (right) about 10-15 miles on the next mountain is a bright Copernican splash crater that I now use as a “marker” for Malibu that is just to the west on the adjacent massif. This bright-crater can be seen from great distance even on Trans Earth Coast photographs (see AS17-152-23308). This crater as seen on AS11-42-6223 was originally thought to be the Dome seen on AS10-4221, until further examination dismissed this possibility. (The AS10-4221 Dome covers a section of the 3 mile high shore mountains...the bright-crater hardly covers an outcrop of one of them.) The bright crater is west of two small mare-craters, Cleomedes F and FA. (see LOIV 54H3 in my second report.)

Because of Malibu’s enigmatic nature, I began looking in earnest, for other corroborative photography. I searched Apollo catalogs and photo-maps and with the help of the archive at Houston (Lunar and Planetary Institute), I accessed 2 panoramic high-res Apollo 17 photo negatives. Panoramic photographs show stereoscopic coverage of a region and are used for photogeologic analysis. They were taken with a 61cm. lens, the camera design utilizing image motion compensation. Pan coverage showed a strip 330km wide centered on the groundtrack. The 2 pans I ordered were #2249 and #2256 - - high obliques at the north ends of each strip taken in 1972. Terminator-to-terminator passes of oblique photos were taken with the camera axis pointing backward and then northward. The principal point (average) for the photos is 18.5 N. lat and 53.5 E. long. They sent me copies of the prints as well as the 8X10 negatives to develop my own prints and sectionals.

Both #2249 and #2256 clearly show the bright crater and Malibu massifs from about a 50 degree angle looking down angularly from the SW toward them but MALIBU wasn’t on either of them. The area of the Malibu artifact is in bright sunlight but should easily be seen. I am suspicious in that I believe that this particular area of these pans have been tampered with in some way by a lunar photography source prior to the negatives being placed into archival public access. The only other unlikely explanation (which I really can’t resolve myself to due to Malibu’s size) is that the area is being filtered out somehow due to bright sun on the side of the hill where its located. It was and is hard for me to believe it isn’t seen on these pans because as a lunar feature, it is just too blatent and geometrically unique in it’s shape and size as its seen on the Apollo 11 6223 photo!

AS-17-P-2249

A comment on the traditional geologic model of this region.......AS17 stratigraphic studies of the Northern Crisium region in the AS17 Preliminary Science Report proposes that the lunar terra of the north shore massifs are Pre-Imbrian with smooth slopes similar to the massifs at the AS17 landing site and are bedrock uplifted from the Crisium event. There is Imbrian planar mare material (basaltic lava) interweaving around some of these fragmented massifs.

The massif where Malibu is located is a small relatively isolated mountain along the shore, the only one in the entire region. I believe the geologic modification processes were most active long before Malibu “appeared” on the scene. It is currently protected by its very design, from any further erosional or depositional wasting except for meteoric bombardment which will, in time, produce some wasting but it is my belief it has been there for a very long time.

Although the 2 pans were clear, the angle of the photos didn’t show Malibu on either of them. The search continued. I was certain that this structure as seen on the AS11 photo could not be a glitch in the negative, or some artifact of the processing. On one of the AS15 photo-maps showing 3” metric mapping photography, I saw this section of Crisium was photographed in its orbital path. I accessed a 16mm microfilm reel of AS15 mapping photography from NSSDC, Greenbelt MD that had positive work copies of the numbered photos on the maps. After finding the Malibu area on two of the better north shore film photos using the bright crater as my “marker - reference, I ordered the 8X10 negatives for #1500 and #1502 from NSSDC. Something as small as Malibu even on very good microfilm photos cannot be seen. The negatives are far better to resolve structures like it. I suspected that it would be on these two pictures taken seconds apart, and from different slight angles that would confirm its existence.

The purpose of the mapping metric photography on Apollos’ 15-17 was to obtain photos of high geometric precision of all lunar features overflown by the spacecraft in sunlight. The camera is a 76mm (3”) Fairchild mapping camera that used a 5” film, a 3” stellar camera and a laser altimeter....the system designed to provide 75% overlap between successive images photographed on the same pass.

According to the AS15 Catalog, statistics show the approximate altitude above the lunar surface for both #1500 and #1502 to be 116 miles. The principal points are 12.5 to 13.5 N. lat., and 56-53.5 E. longitude respectively. Camera tilt was 40 degrees and sun elevation was HIGH. As a result of the high sun, shadows seen were practically negligible meaning everything was in light.

For about 6 months after receipt of the two AS15 negatives, I was busy on another project and they were filed away. I was caught up on other analog research including prints and sectionals from III123M and H-frames of the Hortensius region which were subsequently sent to Mike Bara for his reference. (Hortensius Reports were recently posted on this site.) Late this past November (‘98), I retrieved them and put them over my light table.

With an 8X lupe I saw Malibu VISIBLE on both AS15 negs, more-so on #1502! IT IS ON THE SAME AREA OF THE SAME MASSIF AS SEEN ON AS11-6223 AND SHOWS THE SAME GEOMETRIC RECTALINEARITY. The interior definition as seen on the AS11 photo can’t be seen on the AS15’s, but the general exterior structural-parameters are undeniable!

AS-15-M-1502

The AS15 photographs developed including zoom-sectionals are significant in that they corroborate previous data and prove this artifacts existence. When dealing with surface-artificialities such as Malibu, the scale is extremely small which makes corroboration somewhat difficult. One needs good reference material to find other photography that shows other views.

As in all my analog research it has been important for me to find the “other views” from other missions to verify true discovery. I mention again the recently posted reports of the Hortensius region on this site, particularly regarding the “double-craters” discussed and seen on the III123H-frames. Upcoming reports will verify these “doubles” as seen on MANY other Lunar Orbiter and Apollo mission photographs. I have discovered them on at least FIVE other lunar areas. There is more to come....DO ‘stay tuned’.......


NASA SP-330, AS17 Preliminary Science Report, Photographic Summary, 1972, p. 4-3
JSC-08640, AS17 Index of Mapping and Panoramic Photographs, Nov. 1973, p.135
Wilhelms, Don E, Geologic Map of the Northern Crisium Region , SP-330, AS17 Preliminary Science Report, p. 29-32.
Microfilm Catalog of AS15 Metric Photography, NSSDC ID. 71-063A-36, NSSDC, Greenbelt, MD.
AS15 Lunar Photography Data Users Note, NSSDC, 1972, p.5.
AS15 Index of Mapping and Panoramic Photography, Jan. 1972, Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, pp76-77.