Transient Lunar Phenomena

A transient event in the Crater Anaxagoras near the Lunar Limb captured last night from our backyard at 10.00pm BST

Last night was not clear enough for gainful astro-imaging, so instead I busied myself with calibrating the focusing of my planetary camera at a number of F values. The moon presented about half phase and was an ideal object to focus upon. Sadly, the gum trees at the bottom of our garden and some hazy high level cloud prevented me from capturing any really sharp images.

As I watched the moon sailing serenely across the sky my mind turned to the observation of 'Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs)'

"A transient lunar phenomenon (TLP), or lunar transient phenomenon (LTP), is a short-lived light, color, or change in appearance on the surface of the moon.
Claims of short-lived lunar phenomena go back at least 1,000 years, with some having been observed independently by multiple witnesses or reputable scientists. Nevertheless, the majority of transient lunar phenomenon reports are irreproducible and do not possess adequate control experiments that could be used to distinguish among alternative hypotheses to explain their origins. Thus, few reports concerning these phenomena are ever published in peer reviewed scientific journals, and the lunar scientific community rarely discusses these observations.
Most lunar scientists will acknowledge that transient events such as out-gassing and impact cratering do occur over geologic time: the controversy lies in the frequency of such events.
The term was created by Patrick Moore during his co-authoring of NASA Technical Report R-277 Chronological Catalog of Reported Lunar Events, published in 1968." Credit Wikipedia

For more information on Transient Lunar Phenomena follow the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_lunar_phenomenon