Article
Blue lights across four Apollo missions
- Apollo 11: AS11-40-5938, a trio of lights (Max; being pulled).
- Apollo 12: five war.gov frames. On 6846 to 6847 one light holds its place in the camera view while the landscape moves about 1000 px, and it brightens.
- Apollo 14: AS14-66-9301, a blue light with a double core, on the same camera model and film as Apollo 12, plus Mitchell's private account of blue lights escorting the mission.
- Apollo 17: VM006, a triangle of two blue lights and one orange-red.
Two motifs repeat: paired or stacked points (Apollo 12 area 5, the Apollo 14 core) and triangles of three (Apollo 11, Apollo 17). Loeb's cosmic-ray explanation is the main alternative, and the film margins can test it.
Cases in this article
Apollo 11 1969Apollo 12 lights released by war.gov (VM001-VM005) 1969Apollo 14 blue orbs 1971Apollo 17 three dots (war.gov VM006) 1972