The Orbit video in 4k

Orbit: Moon. This is a wonderful video from Seán Doran’s YouTube channel. I have found myself becoming fascinated by the Moon since taking this photograph from my backyard.

So when I found a video giving me the chance to follow an orbit around the Moon I was hooked from the start.

The Crater Anomaly

The video itself is a long one, just under 54 minutes, yet it is well worth the view. However, 7:12 into the video things got really interesting for me. In one crater, the side of the crater appears to be in complete shadow. Nothing unusual there you may think. But, if you take a closer look, you can see that shadowed crater wall shows something reflecting light, that has a suspiciously geometric shape. Look at those 90° angles. They are not something you would expect to see form naturally on the surface of the Moon.

If you want to jump straight to that part of the video, click here.

Is it a mine?

Now I’ve done a looked at this part of the video, even grabbed a few frames to take a closer look using an editor and I simply cannot come up with a natural explanation for this. The only thing I could think of was some sort of camera fault or problem with the data. However, I do find that extremely unlikely as the ‘anomaly’ moves almost seamlessly with the video. Now just before we see the picture above, another crater, and I didn’t really notice this until viewing it on a large screen, really reminds me of a mining operation.

Or is this simply just my eyes playing tricks and seeing things that are not really there? For example, I see what could potentially be an access road into the crater, some sort of processing machinery and perhaps an enclosed conveyor system. Though I’m not sure how a conveyor system would work, given the very weak gravity on the Moon.

For a comparison, this photograph shows a surface mine, or what we would call an open cast mine in the U.K.

Sadly the video did not pass over any of the Apollo mission landing sites. That’s a shame. It would have been really good to see the flags and equipment that was left behind on those missions. Perhaps another video will arrive with an orbit over those sites? Here’s hoping.