Saturday, May 12, 2007

This video allegedly shows a battered ET spacecraft on the lunar surface.



This could easily be an effects job and I fully expect it to be exposed as such. Nonetheless, I find it intriguing.

Update: Yeah, it's a hoax. But a rather cool one.
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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

See: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=retiredafb
for the following laff riot:

"retiredafb
Style: Commentary
Joined: April 01 2007
Last Login: 7 hours ago
Videos Watched: 102
Subscribers: 51
Channel Views: 2,670

"Videos of the boldest and most secret apollo mission. Apollo 20 went to the moon august 16 1976. Destination was Iszak D, southwest of Delporte Crater, farside of the moon. The mission was soviet-american. Crew was William Rutledge CDR, former of bell laboratories, leona snyder CSP bell laboratories, and alexei leonov, soviet cosmonaut former "apollo soyouz" (mission one year earlier). Station 1 on the moon was "the city"; Station two was "the ship". During the four EVA, LMP and CDR brought technical objects from the ship and a body, on of the two pilots of the alien spaceship. The body, the city and the ship were very old, age has been estimated 1.5 billion of years. Meteorit impacts, and dust/hills coverings testified that. Note that the ship has already been explored before the first human expedition reached the lunar singularity.
Age: 76
City: gisenyi
Country: Rwanda"
----------------------------------

It is a Fake, with a capital F. First, there was no Apollo 20 American/Soviet voyage to the dark side of the moon (well, maybe in _someone's_ mind, after listening to a bit too much Pink Floyd while "under the influence"...). 8^}

I also suspect the launch of a Saturn 5 rocket on "august 16 1976" from anywhere on this planet would have been noticed and previously commented on before now.

Second, the link noted above describes some details of the alleged flight that are kind of silly (astronauts "former" Bell Labs?), to say the least.

Third, at about 3:05 to 3:10 on the time counter on both versions of this video at YouTube, there is an obscuring "flash" of light, after which the view is much more mobile, as if the camera has suddenly been removed from a fixed point or tripod, which is unlikely, as the view is then shaky and less clear. Also, the angle of view and movement indicates the camera is close to the model of the "craft".

Fourth, the captions at the bottom of the video then begin a ridiculous monologue which the video does not show ("...meteorite impacts..."). Plus, the captions are unrelated to the basically inaudible soundtrack.

Fifth, there's a rectangular object on top of the "alien craft" that is shiny, whereas the rest of the vehicle, which is a relatively small scale model, is very dusty. Who's been shining the rectangle that light glints off of?

Sixth, the granularity of the supposed "moon surface" and "impact craters" is quite different from the beginning of the video before the obscuratory light flash at the 3:05 to 3:10 time mark--even though the captions try to "explain" this by suggesting a close-up lens is now being used, the effect still looks fakey, granular, and unreal.

Seventh, the captions don't give the genuine impression of an astronaut's likely narration as the "craft" is being "observed" ("...billions of years old...").

Eighth,--oh for christ's sake, it's a goddamn model!--looks kind of like the Pan Am clipper in "2001-A Space Odyssey"; retiredafb, the poster, is self-revealed to be out-to-lunch based on his descriptive comments about what the video is alleged to show (plus bad grammar, syntax, and spelling); there's more than one version of this video, wherein one has a few frames indicating sourcing from Apollo 11 footage, the other doesn't, while Apollo 17 was actually the last moon flight; supposedly the poster is in Rwanda, and I could go on with several more "tells" and other bizarre anomalies, but I think you get my drift... 8^}

It's a goddamn fake! Kind of interesting in a way, from the point of view of the time and effort that must have been spent creating this little "artistic" hoax, but come on...

My point is what's the point in posting this? Use google to do some research. Check the forum discussion about it at the "above top secret" website. Look at the poster's other videos by checking the link above. Look at the feedback the poster received. Etc.

I'm kind of getting tired of fake ufo pictures and videos, I guess...

Just muddies the already far too opaque waters, and amounts to "ufoology". My only question, really, is why post this stuff, Mac"?

3:51 AM
Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, I find it intriguing, also.

As a form of disinformation. Or as a wasteful distraction. But, obviously, it has a kind of strange artistic appeal to our baser ufological "desires". Yet, it also seeks to undermine credibility and serve the credulous "believer" community. A net negative.

As such, it offends me on some deep level.

5:05 AM
drjon said...

A stunningly beautiful piece of work. Captures the imagination, and has the stink of verisimilatude which is oft so absent from these things.

I blogged about it yesterday myself. Wonderful!

8:17 PM
Mac said...

Mr. Intense--

This isn't a formal research site. You'll note I didn't bill the purported footage as genuine -- indeed, I didn't even take it seriously, simply noting that I found it intriguing.

Thanks for debunking it. I obviously didn't dig deep enough. But I still find it interesting, not because it's potentially legit but because it has a certain aesthetic charm, as Dr. Jon seems to appreciate.

Finally, I see nothing wrong with tracking modern myths, if only to see what they tell us about ourselves. I appreciate crop circles, for instance, knowing full-well that people are making them.

9:24 PM
Anonymous said...

fake video, but that object appears in this photo from a nasa-related site site:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/frame/?AS15-P-9625

11:39 PM
Anonymous said...

When a "real deal" video gets released, there will be debunkers proving it to be a hoax. So, we need to be careful, and not to quick on the draw to debunk.
Although on this one, there is a lot of evidence for the debunking.

Stan

4:50 AM
Anonymous said...

Mac,

I wouldn't let this story die so quickly. There are some VERY peculiar aspects to the Apollo 20 flyover video worth investigating. My feeling is that this is either a "scripted leak" or 'retiredafb' got his hands on something genuine and muddied it with other clips which have a very distinct stylistic difference and lack of polish. It's almost as if he/they needed to make things questionable in order to release the footage.

Most importantly as many have noted, the topographical details present in the flyover are "pitch perfect" accurate. This isn't footage from any existing Apollo mission either as none of those missions flew over this particular strip. If this was a fabrication, it would require a model maker of substantial skill to recreate every crater referenced from photos of the area. I can say with authority that this is NOT CGI but if by some stretch it is, there are sophistications in here that would require the backing of a major studio, their render room, their compositing department...so on.

Referencing topographical data is key in determining whether or not this is a hoax. We have the wonderful chance here to reference a legitimate picture of the object in question http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/frame/?AS15-P-9625 and draw parallels to stills from the video. What we find is someone going to a GREAT deal of trouble clarifying every micro-crater and executing exacting relative proportions to the surrounding landscape: http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/7726/montaggio2engcopyvb8.jpg . This attention to detail is apparent throughout the flyby video. This Mac would take the skill of a VERY talented model maker with some heavy experience under his belt. Not to mention the time investment.

The video if fake is a pure work of art, every frame. Lighting, composition, compositing, flare and period specific video FX and marks of authenticity are all there. Some have criticized the light burst just prior to the zoom in but if you've ever seen similar exposure and focal changes from other Apollo missions, it's authentic. Another criticism which is actually a point of validity for me is the way the camera behaves once pushed in beyond it's natural zoom limit. It's unstable, it's being tracked by joystick and it's generally pretty messy as happens in real life.

The "but the world would have know about a launch of that size" argument is frankly laughable. Russia has throughout its cold war history launched an untold number of space related payloads. Did you hear about all of those on the local news??? If this was indeed a Russian/American mission then they most certainly would not have launched on US soil.

Bottom line is that this is an extremely interesting piece of footage that needs more study. The internet is booming with discussion on this thing and with good reason. The "craft" may not even be alien and in fact the mission could be the recovery of a black project downed craft.

Keep your eyes on this one.

7:40 AM
Anonymous said...

If it's fake it is cutely done. The long slow panning with nothing interesting until the end. Unfortunately with todays technology, photos or films doesn't prove anything. I bet a film like this would have popped up in Adamski's wet dreams back in the 50's.

12:09 PM
Henry Baum said...

"I appreciate crop circles, for instance, knowing full-well that people are making them."

What? What a weirdly closed-minded absolute statement.

11:45 AM
Anonymous said...

-Want to Debunk the debunkers right now?

The Lunar and Planetary Institute does have the same artifact on file from Apollo 15: Apollo Image Atlas AS15-P-9625, just google it!!!

For GOD Sake.

Rufuss

7:03 PM
Anonymous said...

There is an interview with the poster here

http://www.angelismarriti.it/ANGELISMARRITI-ENG/REPORTS_ARTICLES/Apollo20-InterviewWithWilliamRutledge.htm

11:43 AM

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