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The "Astronaut Blues"

Shortly after the November 1969 Apollo 12 mission to the moon had returned back to Earth, Life Magazine published on the front cover of it's 12 December 1969 issue, a striking photo of astronaut Alan Bean walking on the Lunar surface, with a brilliant blue-glowing energy field enveloping him. That spectacular photo -- reproduced below and taken by fellow astronaut Charles Conrad using a hand-held 70mm Hasselblad film camera -- created quite a stir of interest, not only regarding the Apollo program itself, but also as to the nature of the mysterious blue glow. I remember seeing that photo as a teen. Years later, I came across the photo in a set of NASA space-program images sold commercially, and later still a friend gave me a used copy of that original Life Magazine issue. Below I reproduce the central portions of that same photograph, obtained from NASA archives.

NASA Image AS12-46-6826 from the Apollo 12 Mission.

In 2006, following a personal visit to the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, seeing all the satellite and moon rocket launch vehicles, capsules and such, and recalling my wish to become an astronaut as a young man, I decided to investigate this photograph, and the issue of its blue-glow, more thoroughly. I can now say I have personally examined every publicly-available reel of color or black-and-white film, and all moving picture video images, from every US space mission, and many Soviet missions, going back to the early days of the Mercury and Gemini programs, into and through the Apollo missions and considerably into the early period of SkyLab and the Space Shuttle missions. And I can for certain that, there are very few of these photos to be seen, assuming one excludes the many examples of lens flares and camera smudges did not ever produce anything similar to these glowing astronaut pictures. I'll give the details below.

Digging into the NASA archives, I found only one other very clear blue-glowing astronaut image, from the same Apollo 12 mission -- indeed, it is from the time-period of their mission activity, when setting up the ASLEP (Apollo Surface Lunar Experimental Package), and on the same reel of film. This also may be critical to understanding how these blue glowing images came about, because -- while it boggles the mind a bit -- this was the one and only color film reel to be photographed of the astronauts setting up the ASLEP during the entire Apollo program. All the others were black-and-white images.

This second photo is also reproduced, below. (Be aware, the low-resolution quality of the internet images may show grainy artifacts which are definitely not present in the originals.)

NASA Image AS12-46-6818 from the Apollo 12 Mission.

This second photo also is of Alan Bean, working on the lunar surface, setting up equipment, but it is taken some minutes earlier, at a different location and from a slightly different sun angle. However, I had never heard of this second photograph until I discovered it while making my search through the original film images from NASA archives. Interestingly, neither astronaut Bean nor Conrad remember seeing any blue glow phenomenon, but this could be the result of the reflective shields on their space-suit helmets, which may have diminished it considerably. I also later determined, it could not be easily photographed without the black background of open space behind it, to give it a strong contrast. So whatever it was, it could not be easily seen, and they caught it on film quite by accident.

What caused this blue glow? I have considered, and rejected, a number of mechanical-optical effects which have typically been suggested or postulated, bringing in other photos and images which appear relevant for the discussion. It is important to keep in mind, there are photos from the Apollo missions which display very clear film artifacts, and some of these yield up prismatic effects including components of blue coloration. And there are photos showing severe camera lens smudges, though none, as I show, yield up such spectacular displays of blue-glowing astronauts. The blue-glowing effect itself is frequently proclaimed as prima-facia evidence for a camera smudge, as if it were a proxy-indicator that "something must be wrong with the camera or lens". This is false reasoning. If there is a blue glow AND some other identifiable factor such as a lens smudge, then it makes sense. But as I will show, this is not the case. There are blue-glowing astronaut images without blurring or lens smudges, and photos with very blurred central components with clearly identifiable lens smudges, but without any blue-glowing anomaly. Consequently, it becomes imperative to sort out what is caused by what, and not to make unwarranted assumptions. This is especially true for new disciplines such as space science and planetary exploration.

Below I will focus primarily upon the time-line sequence from Apollo 12, specifically the camera color film magazine number 46, taken by astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad, with images AS12-46-6715 to AS12-46-6868. This reel "Y-46" is one of two color film photographic reels made during the Apollo 12 Lunar landing and moon-walk. A second reel "V-47" also exists, as taken by Alan Bean. However, at the critical times and locations when the blue-glowing images were recorded, Bean was working to set up the ASLEP. All of the blue-glowing images from the Apollo 12 Lunar Landing were therefore taken of Alan Bean, as he worked on the ASLEP equipment, and he was the one displaying the blue glow. So far as I have determined, Bean's own camera therefore was not being used at the critical locations and times, as I will argue below. This point makes his camera reel V-47 basically unable to assist in evaluation of the phenomenon. Two other black-and-white camera reels (X-48 and Z-49) were also taken during the Apollo 12 moon-walks, which cannot help in the analysis either. There are other factors which appear necessary for these spectacular blue-glowing astronaut photos to occur, such as sun-angle and probable lunar surface electrostatics, as will become apparent in the discussion which follows.

Lunar Dust?

The first attempted explanation of the blue-glowing astronauts came with the 12 December 1969 cover-photo in Life Magazine, as mentioned above. Someone in NASA, probably without giving it too much thought, offered up the hypothesis that the blue glow was due to "lunar dust" being kicked up from the surface of the moon. This idea could not be maintained for long, given its obvious deficiencies. Certainly there was lots of lunar dust kicked up by all the different astronauts, and several of them appear in the photos to follow. The dust stays close to their feet and legs and does not form a symmetrical cloud around them, and none of the dusts show any blue hues or glows.

Here is a photo which combines kicked-up lunar dust clouds with solar glare, another factor which is discussed below. While the dust itself is not "blue glowing" one can, if you look hard enough, discern some slight blue glowing around the edges of the dust cloud... here and there... sort of.

The reader is invited to go back to the top of this page, and compare the two blue-glowing astronauts with this dust-cloud image. Lunar dust appears like other dust, whitish or greyish, but not bluish. There is no such dust cloud present in the blue-glowing astronaut images, and the "atmosphere" surrounding the astronauts remains clear and transparent. Even the blue-glow regions are transparent, as one can easily see good details on the lunar landscape in the background. Obviously, Lunar dust does not explain the phenomenon.

After having reviewed virtually all of the publicly available color photo sequences from the Apollo Lunar missions, from Apollo 11 through Apollo 17, I can say for certain that one does not find any blue glowing phenomenon near to or surrounding any dust clouds, or around any astronaut who kicked up such dust clouds, nor from the more dusty Lunar Rover photographs and videos. The blue-glow in the original two photos under discussion enveloped the entire body of the astronauts, extending outwards by around one meter, and could not be merely the optical effects of a "kicked-up dust cloud". True dust also obscures the objects behind it, while the blue glow surrounding the astronauts shows no signs of being an obscuring, "out of focus" or blurry phenomeonon.

Solar Glare?

From various Apollo Lunar images, one can find light bluish colorations either concentrated in the central part of the image splashed across the entire photographs due to intensive solar glare or "flaring", but this is only the case when the Sunlight is somewhat directly in front of the camera, by an angle of 45-degrees or less. In those cases, there is a massive glaring effect with some bluish coloration or rainbow effects in the areas where the intense Sun has not fully obliterated the view. The following panorama was assembled from still photos taken from the same Apollo 12 mission as our "blue-glowing astronauts", showing the phenomenon of solar glare or flaring quite clearly:

This panorama is identified in the NASA archives as item "a12pan1165752". In case the reproduction above is insufficient, here is a weblink for a larger 1 MB image of the same:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/a12pan1165752.jpg
This panorama was designated as "Pete's ASLEP Site Plan", about which more will be said below, because that's where all the blue-glowing photographs came from.
http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/a12pan1165752.html

And here is an enlargement of one of the more critical and relevant shots from that panorama:

Compare these photos showing solar glare to the two blue-glowing astronauts given above, taken on the Lunar surface during the same Apollo 12 mission, around the same time and conditions, and with the same camera. The panorama indicates, solar flaring or glare is occurring only when the camera is pointed fairly close into the Sun. The flaring or glare vanishes as the camera is pointed what appears to be about 45 degrees away from the Sun. Furthermore, what small amounts of bluish color the glare impresses upon the Lunar panorama, is very weak, or creates a rainbow effect, showing as much green and red as blue. The white suits of the astronauts in those photos do not create any kind of reflection-effects. There is no blue-glow surrounding them, or observable in any quantity.

By contrast, in the first blue-astronaut image above (very top photo, AS12-46-6826), the Sun appears to come from behind the left-shoulder of the astronaut photographer Conrad, bearing off towards the right-side horizon at the distance. In the second image the solar angle is at approximately a 90-degree angle to the photographer, also coming from the left-hand side of the photo. In neither case is there any kind of solar glare or Sunlight flares entering the camera lens to create the blue glow, which is compactly surrounding the bodies of the astronaut. There is no Sunlight entering the camera directly from the fore-ground. This means, the Hasselblad camera probably had its iris setting at a fairly open condition, even for the bright Lunar surface. In both photos, the blue energy field stands out dramatically against the blackness of open space. In Lunar photos with intensive solar flares or glaring, the iris of the camera would have been considerably narrowed, to block out intensive light, thereby prohibiting such subtle blue energy-field phenomenon from being recorded. Consequently, this cannot be the effect of solar glare, and it appears as something only possible to record when the camera is aimed away from the Sun. It is also clear, from a simple viewing of these images, that the quality, intensity and coloration, plus the shape and structure of the blue-glow surrounding the two astronauts is of a completely different nature from those produced by solar glare and flaring.

Solar Glare Reflection off the Camera Iris?

This particular postulate actually does produce a very weak blue glow, but not in any causal manner associated with objects in the camera's field of view. The two photos below show typical solar reflection off the iris of the camera from the Apollo 12 mission, producing a back-reflection onto the interior side of the Hasselblad camera lens, which is then captured on the film. It has a pentagonal shape, in keeping with the shape of the camera's iris. And if someone happens to stand right into that iris-glare pentagonal image, it can create a frame around them -- but only totally by accident, without any causal relationship, and preserving the pentagonal shape of the iris.

NASA Images AS12-46-6803 (left) and AS12-46-6807 (right) from the Apollo 12 Mission.

Obviously, this camera artifact also is not the source of the blue-glowing astronauts. Notice this same astronaut framed in the camera-iris reflection on the right also is kicking up a bit of dust at his feet -- no blue glow there either.

Water Vapor Ice Crystals?

Some time later, the idea was developed -- from whom it is not certain, but this appears in the wonderful 1999 book Full Moon by Michael Light (Alfred Knopf, NY) -- that the blue glow was the product of "water vapor ice crystals emitted from the [cooling evaporative] boiler on his space-suit backpack." Full Moon is basically a large color-picture book of the Lunar explorations, a very stunning work of photography. This new explanation seems to have survived longer than the prior one of "Lunar dust", but upon closer examination, it also shows serious flaws.

Firstly, we must point out that the Lunar atmosphere constitutes a deep, hard vacuum, of exceedingly low pressures. At night, the pressure drops to 5 x 10(-13) torr, rising to 4 x 10(-11) torr in daytime. This is a fractional equivalent of 0.0000000000001 or approximately one-trillionth (10 to the 13th power) of the Earth's atmospheric pressure. The surface of the Moon is sometimes described as being more like a cometary coma, in the sense that there is a dramatic "venting away" into space of any and all kinds of volatile constituents which might exist, especially during Lunar daytime. Any gaseous constituents of the Lunar soil have been systematically volatilized and roasted out of existence over many thousands of years, especially given how the Moon always shows the same face towards the Sun. Nothing lasts long enough to form any kind of significant "Lunar atmosphere", though one might consider its constituents sufficient to form ionized plasmas under the right conditions -- and this by itself may have a role to play in the formation of the blue glowing effects.

Secondly, the breathing apparatus for the astronauts is a closed-circuit and does not vent gas directly into the Lunar vacuum. But the space suit does possess a special heat-rejection mechanism for cooling of the astronaut during the hot Lunar daytime. This system is still widely-used, and relies upon direct sublimation of water into the vacuum of space through a porous metal plate, as contained in the astronaut's backpack or Portable Life Support System (PLSS). Sublimation means, the direct transfer from the solid phase of a substance into its gaseous form. The PLSS worked by liquid water slowly permeating the porous metal plate, whereupon ice (at very low pressure which allows it to form at higher temperatures) would form on the side facing out into the open Lunar vacuum. The ice would then sublimate away as an invisible gas, thereby extracting heat from the space suit.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/plss.html

Given the above facts, how could it be that any kind of "water vapor" could remain close to the astronaut with sufficient lag-time as to create a "cloud" surrounding him? If the evaporative-boiler/cooler in the back-pack was the correct explanation, then one would expect to see a bluish glow predominantly around the astronaut's back pack.

From this information, it is clear there is no "water vapor" per se, composed of tiny droplets of water, nor of ice-crystals, being ejected from the astronaut's space suit, nor being collected around him due to a dense atmosphere that would impede their outward-bound trajectories. Individual gaseous water molecules are sublimated away, which are invisible and have no direct influence upon visible light was as they pass through open space, or through the Lunar vacuum. The ejected water molecules, sublimating from a porous but apparently icy metal plate on the PLSS, would atomize and be ejected off at a fantastic diffusion speed, given the absence of any significant Lunar "atmosphere" to inhibit their outward trajectory. But even if some of these water molecules might "linger" and be electrostatically attracted to the astronaut's space suit to form a "cloud", then it should be seen far more frequently around all the astronauts. It isn't. These are rare photographs, showing the blue-glows. The same porous metal plate sublimation system was used for heat-rejection in other NASA space vehicles. According to the Hamilton Sunstrand company, which developed the PLSS, a similar heat-rejection system "was incorporated into the Lunar Module Environmental Control System and the Saturn rocket electronics heat rejection system. Porous plate sublimation is now a space standard that is used on the Space Shuttle and Russian Mir Space Station and in the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (the U.S. EVA suit) and the Russian Orlan (Russia's EVA Space Suit)." If this is so, why don't we see dozens of photos of both astronauts and space vehicles enveloped in blue clouds or energy fields? This open question remains as much of an enigma for my own plasmatic orgone-life-energy-field explanation, as it does for the mechanistic theories about the blue-astronaut photos. But let's continue.
http://www.snds.com/ssi/ssi/WhoWeAre/History/apollo.html

Dust Smudge on the Camera Lens?

As noted above, the Lunar surface is a dusty place, and it is reasonable to postuate that a dust smudge on the camera lens might possibly yield some kind of color distortion on the filmed images. The same reel of film which captured the two Apollo 12 blue-astronaut images had such a dust smudge on the lens for part of the sequence. A new argument has therefore been raised, that the blue coloration is due to a "dust smudge", even though nobody has articulated exactly how such a smudge could create those blue-glowing effects. By my own thinking, if a smudge of dust particles on the Hasselblad camera lens surface could create sufficient prismatic diffraction of Lunar Sunlight reflecting off the bright-white space suits, it might create such a bluish halo effect. Superficially this seems reasonable, but upon further examination this argument fails to be conclusive, and there is much to contradict it.

Firstly, any dust smudge sufficient to diffract reflected Sunlight from the space-suits into its rainbow colors would not yield only a blue glow. It would produce some blue glow and red glow. A "rainbow" effect would be anticipated from a dust-smudge, much as what is seen above in the photo where solar glare and prismatic flaring created a distinct rainbow effect off the camera lens. There is no reason to anticipate postulated prismatic effects from a dust-smudge would produce only bluish tones.

Secondly, a dust smudge on the lens should obscure, distort and blur the images. There is some evidence of blurring on a few of the photos later in the camera sequence, as I show below. But in those cases, there is no evidence of bluish glows. And where there is blue glowing on photos claimed to be the consequence of dust-smudges, there is no evidence of blurring. The most pronounced blue-glows in these photographs show no signs of blurriness at all. If the theory of dust-smudges was correct, we should anticipate to see direct evidence of a dust smudge, as with obvious blurring of the image, at the same time the blue glows were appearing. Predominantly this is not the case.

Thirdly, while one of the Apollo 12 blue-astronaut photos has a rounded quality, the other one shows a quite different and distinct outward-flaring effect. The "flaring-blue" photo looks more like a kind of "Kirlian" electrophoto, as one gets on the Earth surface when a high-frequency field is used to excite the living bio-system, whereupon it glows sufficiently to create plasmatic flares radiating outward, which can then be recorded on a film plate. I will have more to say about this idea below. For now, however, I will merely point out the obvious flare-like shape of the brighter and more pronounced of the two blue-glowing astronaut images, which is different from the other more roundish image. If both photos were caused by what is supposed to be the same dust smudge on the same camera lens, then it would have to be a completely different shape of "smudge" to create the two different "blue-glowing smudge patterns".

There are in fact other Apollo Lunar mission photos which show very distinct camera-lens dust smudges, and we can review them for comparison. For example, below are two such images taken from the Apollo 16 Lunar mission, from a sequence where all share this same very obvious smudging and blurring.

NASA Images AS16-116-18676 (left) and AS16-116-18679 (right) from the Apollo 16 Mission.

This camera smudge is quite clear, and it blurs the parts of the image over which it is located. There is no bluish coloration apparent. But we can do even better. There is one photo where this same camera blur was positioned directly over an astronaut, with the dark blackness of open space behind him. In that photo, AS16-116-18723, there is a "blur-field" around him, but no transparent blue-glowing field. Below I reproduce the pertinent part from the original high-resolution image, and you can download the full image from the provided link, for comparisons.

Close-Up Section of NASA Image AS16-116-18723 from the Apollo 16 Mission.
Click here to download the full high-resolution image.

In the original full image, neither the Lunar lander on the left, nor the far right-hand side of the Lunar landscape are under the camera smudge, so they appear more clear and in better focus. But the blurriness of the astronaut and central horizon is greater, due to the unambiguous camera-smudge blurring effect.

An extremely subtle grey-blue tinge is apparent in the "blur-field" around the astronaut, but this is also reproduced along the Lunar horizon, suggesting it is more of an "edge effect" due to the great distance from the camera to the astronaut, who is greatly magnified here from his very tiny size on the original downloaded image. This photo clearly is nothing like the blue-glowing astronaut photos under discussion, and by itself tends to dispute the "dust-smudge" theory for blue-glowing astronauts. But let's continue...

Fourthly, there are other images on that same Apollo 12 film reel of dead and inert equipment on the Lunar surface which are also of a brilliant white coloration, not to mention the bright light-gray color of the Lunar surface itself. Only one of those shows a clear bluish glow, though it is significantly less than what one sees with the astronauts. This gives us a clue as to the mechanism, but as I will point out below when this photo is introduced, it does not appear to be the consequence of a dust-smudge.

Before proceeding further, we need to orient ourselves, to place ourselves on the Lunar surface with the Apollo 12 astronauts, so we can follow them as they walked around, to see what they were doing at the time the two spectacular images, and several less-spectacular but very interesting scenes, were photographed. The following photo-diagram shows the work-area and equipment where the astronauts were standing at the time when the blue-glowing images were captured on film, and we will reference it as the discussion continues.

Note the three-pronged apparatus in the foreground, which is the Lunar Surface Magnetometer, which was a part of the ASLEP experiments. This particular photograph, designated AS12-47-6921 (with text labels, it is found as a12det6921), was taken somewhat after the blue-glowing sequences, after the various apparatus had been set up, aligned and checked out for functioning. This is a critical point, because during the entire film sequence where the blue images appear, the astronauts standing next to, deploying and calibrating what appears to be electrically-charged equipment, some of which emitted radio frequencies (RF).

From this we can back-track, to the time of the very first photo showing any blue coloration, which is AS12-46-6813, reproduced below. The reader is also invited to go to the NASA historical website where these photos are reproduced and follow the sequence of events themselves. I will summarize below. See here:
http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/images12.html#6806

AS12-46-6810 to AS12-46-6811. These were the end of a panorama sequence of the Lunar surface, showing only the Lunar landscape and black background of space. No dust-smudges or blue coloration is apparent on these.

AS12-46-6812. This is an image of the Solar Wind Spectrometer near the Central Station. No dust-smudges or blue coloration are apparent.

AS12-46-6813. Here we can see astronaut Al Bean deploying the Lunar Surface Magnetometer. This is the first photo where one can detect a blue glow around any of the astronauts, and is reproduced below. The Sunlight comes from the left side at about 90-degrees, and there is a good black background of black outer-space behind him, which makes the glow visible.

NASA Image AS12-46-6813. No dust-smudge or blurring apparent.

The photo is cropped a bit as much of the photo is Lunar landscape or the black of space, but observe the heavy cable which runs from near the position of the camera-man to the Magnetometer. This cable connects back to the Central Station component of the ASLEP instrument package, which also includes a power-generator and radio-communications antenna, suggesting the magnetometer may itself be an electrically- or RF-charged apparatus. The blue glow surrounds the astronaut, but is offset to the left side as you look at it, appearing centered more over the magnetometer than the astronaut. Is this because there is a brand-new camera-smudge creating the blue coloration, and the smudge is offset to the left side? If so, why doesn't this "dust smudge" make the astronaut, the magnetometer and the Lunar horizon a bit blurry? Or is it because the Lunar Surface Magnetometer is itself a charged object, interacting with the astronaut's energy field and space-suit electronics, creating some kind of plasma-field phenomenon? Let's continue to follow this same film sequence.

AS12-46-6814 to AS12-46-6817. In these three images, the astronaut has photographed the Central Station with its communications antenna. The images start off with a close-up of the table area of the Central Station, backing away progressively to show the communications antenna and connected experimental modules. There are slight bluish tinges to parts of all these photographs, especially AS12-46-6816, which is reproduced below.

NASA Image AS12-46-6816. No dust-smudge or blurring apparent.

While the prior several images do show a tinge of blue coloration on the surface of the Central Station apparatus, in image AS12-46-6816 one can see a definite blue foggy color around the Moon-Earth communications antenna (the long pole-like structure pointed vertically) attached to the Central Station. This blue color is not nearly so strong as the blue-glowing astronauts, in spite of its intense white color and high reflectivity. The Sun angle is similar to what was observed for the two blue-glowing astronauts, coming from behind the photographer's left shoulder. But is this photographic blue created by a smudge-blurring and prismatic effects from dusts on the camera lens? If so, why no reds in the image? Or is it because, like the magnetometer, this communication's antenna protruding up from the Central Station apparatus, is highly-charged with electrical fields and radio frequencies, and thereby also creating plasma effects?

AS12-46-6818. For comparison, here we can see once more, one of the two most spectacular blue-astronaut photos. The astronaut is working on the RTG package, a Radioisotope Thermal Generator, which provides electrical power to the entire ASLEP Site.

NASA Image AS12-46-6818 from the Apollo 12 Mission. No dust-smudge or blurring apparent.

AS12-46-6819. This next photo is taken with the camera aimed very close to the Sun, and shows an intense glare. But of interest is the fact that this intense glare reveals no dust-smudge on the camera lens. So far, in all the above sequences, we still have no direct evidence of any dust-smudge on the camera lens. All we have is evidence of blue-glows, but nothing independently showing "dust smudges". At what point will we see an unambiguous dust-smudge, along with the anticipated blurring of the central objects being photographed? I reproduce this photo:

NASA Image AS12-46-6819. No dust-smudge or blurring apparent.

AS12-46-6820. This photo again shows a blue-glow phenomenon, but without evidence of dust-smudging. Everything is in good focus, and there is no blurring where the blue colors exist. It is very interesting, showing Al Bean taking a photo or other readings of an instrument package known as the SIDE/CCIG, which is connected back to the Central Station by a heavy cable. It is reproduced below. The astronaut has a distinct blue glow along his front-side, which very exactly follows the contours of his thigh, and also of his arm and elbow, which protrudes. There is no blue glow along his back. And he is located off to the left of center of the camera. The SIDE/CCIG instrument also has a slight blue glow. But there is no blue glow in between the astronaut and the SIDE/CCIG instrument. This photo suggests a glowing plasmatic phenomenon at the instrument which is mirrored by the astronaut also having a blue glow on that side of his body facing the instrument package, which like the Magnetometer and Central Station, would possibly carry a high charge. It is suggestive of some form of capacitance-resonance effect, between the astronaut and the object. While my idea is surely a postulate, the shaky alternative is to suggest that a dust-smudge which previously was in the center of the camera lens has now split into two, with one part affecting the astronaut and the other the instrument, but not the intervening space in between. This is a somewhat magical dust-smudge, because it creates only very clear and crisp bluish images around only living astronauts, and highly-charged electronic instruments.

NASA Image AS12-46-6820, blue glows, but no dust-smudge or blurring apparent.

AS12-46-6821. This is another photo of the Central Station and various instruments, taken from a distance. No astronauts are in the image, and no blue glowing is apparent around any of the instruments. But one could probably not see a blue glow even if it were present, as no parts of the instruments are framed by the black background of space, as was the case with the Central Station communications antenna, given above. No dust smudges are apparent in this image. Everything appears crisp and clear. One optical anomaly stands out, however. The cable connecting the various instrument packages has an orange foil backing. This cable is twisted somewhat as it is strung out across the Lunar landscape. Parts of the twisted reflective orange cable catch the Sunlight, making an orange flare-effect which creates a few pencil-like blue flares, which run at angles apparently exactly bisecting the angle created by the camera-cable and cable-Sunlight vectors. This is an interesting effect, similar to solar flaring of images, but again does not create anything similar to the blue-glowing astronauts, nor to what might be expected from a blurring dust smudge. A blow-up of the central parts of this image are reproduced below, and the full high-resolution image can be obtained here.

NASA Image AS12-46-6821, blue flare from Sun-reflection off orange mirrored surface.
No dust-smudge or blurring apparent.

AS12-46-6822 to AS12-46-6825. Here we have a series of photos made of the open Lunar landscape, of a small mound and crater close to the Central Station ASLEP Site. The landscape is fairly brilliant, with the Sun coming from behind the right shoulder of the photographer. The central parts of these images show a distinct blurring, however, in keeping with the dust-smudge theory. However, no bluish coloration is apparent in any of them, in spite of the very bright landscape. Two photos down, I give an example of what is the most apparent dust-smudge image in this full sequence. Again, the honest scientist is invited to review the full image sequence themselves from the Apollo 12 Image Library, to confirm my statements.

AS12-46-6826. Here, once more, is the most spectacular of the blue-glowing astronaut images. The astronaut is close to the Central Station workstation and communications antenna, walking away from it in the direction of the Magnetometer. He may be walking just next to the electrical cables connecting the Magnetometer to the Central Station. As such, his body-field is in motion relative to whatever electrical or high-frequency fields as might exist within the ASLEP Site, adding to the excitation, and this appears to be the only such photo where an astronaut is in motion close to these various instrument packages or their connecting cables. This is also the very last of the blue-glowing astronaut images, or of any blue-glowing phenomenon, even though the film sequence continues for some 42 additional photos.

NASA Image AS12-46-6826 from the Apollo 12 Mission. No dust-smudge or blurring apparent.

AS12-46-6827 through AS12-46-6868. These continue the film sequence of images, showing parts of the Lunar landscape, many of which show a central blurry region, but none with bluish hues. Other shots end the film magazine close to the Lunar lander. I reproduce one of them below, with a very pronounced central blurry region, the upper part of which can be seen just above the Lunar horizon. It shows no bluish coloration whatsoever.

NASA Image AS12-46-6847 from the Apollo 12 Mission.
Much Evidence of Dust, No Evidence of Glowing Blue.

In fact, a careful review of these photos, looking specifically for blurring effects, which would indicate the dust-smudge, suggests this starts only around photo AS12-46-6822, and it appears to progressively worsen over time. The dust smudge shown above on image AS12-46-6847 cannot be seen on any of the blue-glowing astronaut photos, nor does it appear that the first images revealing this smudge are even half as bad as what this above image suggests. I have no certainty about why the camera smudge-blurring would intensify over time, except possibly an electrostatic effect of some sort. Possibly the same RF/electrical phenomenon which excited the energy-fields of the astronauts into a blue glow could also have created an electrostatic charging of the camera lens, with a slow accumulation of dust particles in the center of the glass lens. Low gravity and strong electrostatics could create a very symmetrical accumulation of such dust particles. What we do know for certain, however, is that the astronauts who landed on all of the Apollo missions complained about the Lunar dust, how it clung elecrostatically to their space-suits and was then brought into the Lunar Module where, once they opened up their space suits, it got inside and was scratchy, and got into their hair, noses, lungs and food and into everything. They noted the strange electrostatic-clinging behavior of the Lunar dust, and commented about it. An interesting PowerPoint presentation was recently made available by NASA scientist Bill Farrell, "Is Lunar Dust Really a Problem?":
http://ssedso.gsfc.nasa.gov/initiatives/lunar/LESWG/pubs_presentations/7thGM/lunar_dust_051607.ppt

Whatever one thinks of my postulates, it boggles the mind to think the above various blue-glowing astronaut images were created only by light refraction or prismatic effects from a camera lens dust-smudge, for which we have no direct evidence until only very late in the photo sequences. The camera film sequence continues for another 42 different film images, and while the dust smudge becomes increasingly apparent, none of the photos show any kind of blue colors.

From the above, it would appear ALL the blue-glowing astronaut images had the following characteristics:

To this we can add the following:

These facts suggest the "simple" explanation of a camera dust-smudge is insufficient to explain the observation of multiple blue-glowing astronauts and several items of their RF/electrically-charged equipment.

It is therefore reasonable to explore other hypotheses, one of which is the excitation of the astronaut's organismic energy fields, in a manner which is more intensive than what happened around several of the bare instruments alone. We saw the Magnetometer + astronaut with a blue glow, and the SIDE/CCIG apparatus + astronaut with a blue glow. But the two most intensive blue-glowing astronaut photos were firstly when the astronaut was in direct contact with the RTG - Radioisotope Thermal Generator, and secondly when the astronaut was walking away from the Central Station with its RF communications antenna, designed to carry signals all the way to the Earth. I will flesh out my thinking on this matter below, but the dust-smudge theory appears to hold no exclusive explanatory power over these blue-glowing photos. It is not unequivocal in explanation, appears to fail on several important accounts, and other explanations exist and deserve an open discussion.

But as regarding dust-smudges on camera lenses, as I showed above, there was at least one other Apollo Moon-walk camera film sequence with a similar dust-smudge on its lens, from Apollo 16. In fact, I spent several days looking through the complete catalog of Apollo Lunar landing film reels, to better understand this phenomenon. What I learned was both interesting and frustrating.

For example, more than half of all photographs made during the entire Apollo project were on black-and-white film, which could not help in this investigation whatsoever. Moreover, of the color film sequences, many of the images were made during the Lunar lander's descent from orbit, further restricting the number of color film images made on the Lunar surface. Then it appeared that, after Apollo 12, the astronauts began to focus more of their attention to filming Lunar topography and rock-forms, spending a lot of time on the Lunar Rover making expeditions. So there were astonishingly few images of the setting up of the ASLEP instruments. In fact, Apollo 12 seemed unique in having even a dozen good shots of the astronauts working on the ASLEP equipment. In all other Apollo missions, there is a dearth of such photos, and of them not once was there a single photo of an astronaut working on the RF/electrically-charged ASLEP instruments where his body could be framed by the blackness of space, to see if such an energy-field phenomenon would exist, or not! So what one might consider to be a reasonable expectation, that "surely, other astronaut photos would have shown this blue-glowing effect" turns out to be impossible to evaluate, because there were no other photographic sequences which satisfied the same necessary conditions as were experienced during the Apollo 12 ASLEP color sequences.

So we are left with the Apollo 12 sequences, and little more. Our discussion must therefore be confined to the available data, with logical comparisons made to other photographic and optical phenomenon as we find them elsewhere, and useful for our arguments and understandings. And on this score, we can make what is perhaps one of the more damning criticisms of the "dust-smudge" theory of the blue-astronaut photos: Nobody in classical science can point to experimental evidence that a dust-smudge on a camera lens would cause a bright-white object to glow with such a well-defined and aura-like blue, to surround either a human being or a dead and inert object, at least not without also showing prismatic rainbow effects, with equal amounts of red color -- and no matter what the Sun angle. Furthermore, I have demonstrated above, from the Apollo 16 mission, that a very obvious camera-lens dust-smudge did not produce any bluish colors or auras, while the dust-smudges from the Apollo 12 sequence failed also to produce any blue-glows when the camera was turned towards objects away from the RF/electrically-charged ASLEP site and astronauts.

Worse for the dust-smudge theory is the following: If that were the correct theory, then we would already have thousands of such photos made here on Earth, firstly by accident, and then later by hordes of amateur or professional photographers. In fact, if such a photographic method were possible, to create blue auras around people, the unscientific "New Age" people would have already picked up on this as a means to sell "aura photos". We would have photos all over the place, of this or that guru or ayatollah smirking with a "holy blue" energy field being technically re-created, so as to help them con the gullible!

Honest scientists and researchers in parapsychology would also have stumbled over it, and explored it in some detail, to examine its authenticity, and the skeptics would have already tried to debunk it. And Hollywood cinematographers would be using such "special effects" in their science fiction movies. However, in spite of everyone's efforts to image the human energy field, or something that might approximate it, nobody has yet created any kind of convincing "aura photos" which are equal to these accidental ones from the Apollo 12 Lunar mission! If such a photographic technique was possible, to create "blue auras" on demand with fuzzy optics or dusty lenses, this would already be published and known. So it seems imperative to say, that the burden of proof for the theory of dust-smudges on a lens making an object glow such a lovely blue, is on the shoulders of those who advance the dust-smudge theory.

Radio Frequency and/or Electrical Excitation of the Plasma-Like Human Energy Field?

While the above discussions expose the weaknesses in the "solar glare", "kicked-up Lunar dust", "water vapor" and "dust smudge" theories for the blue-glowing astronaut photos, this does not by itself provide any proof that the blue glow could be the excited plasma-like human orgone or life-energy field, or anything similar. Refuting one set of theories does not automatically prove another. Also remaining to be answered is why these two blue-glowing astronaut photos are so rare. Why only those two?

I will start along the lines of the RF/electrical-excitation argument by pointing out some basic subjective similarities between the flare-like blue-glowing astronaut, to a "Kirlian" electro-photo image of a human finger-tip.

Obviously the two phenomenon are not exactly comparable, as the astronaut photo comes from the vacuum of space, while the Kirlian fingertip photo is made in a normal atmosphere. The frequency and voltage-potentials to which the astronauts were exposed around the ASLEP site, or from their own communications equipment, certainly would have been different in terms of frequencies, as compared to the apparatus typically used in Kirlian bio-plasma photographs - but it might have been quite similar in terms of overall field strengths or intensity of RF radiation. The astronauts were energetically excited by significant radio frequencies as from their communications electronics, in their back-pack, as well as from the various electrical and RF-charged objects around the ASLEP site, where these photos were made. Kirlian photos typically are made by applying a high-frequency electrical current to a metal plate, upon which is placed a sheet of film (in a dark paper covering). Placing a finger or leaf on the top of the film and briefly exciting the metal plate with high-frequency electricity creates a discharge or excitation which is registered on the film. One can also reproduce this glowing energy field or "aura" around the finger or full hand in 3 dimensions, if a transparent fluid conductor is used -- as with salt-water in an aquarium, which is then excited by the same RF device -- usually a Tesla coil or more specialized apparatus -- and can be recorded by any camera at a distance, so long as the room is sufficiently dark.

The astronaut standing in open space is also being RF excited in a similar manner, at least periodically as his communications gear, or the apparatus near to which he stands, emits its own bursts or streams of high-frequency. In the open vacuum of space, it appears quite possible that this could be sufficient to create a plasma excitation phenomenon -- roughly analogous to what Wilhelm Reich termed "orgonotic excitation and lumination" around them and some of their instruments as well. From that body of research, which I will discuss in more detail below, we would anticipate a stronger blue-glow around the living astronaut than around the dead instruments, even with their own much higher RF fields (as with transmitting antenna). There also are pronounced electrostatic fields on the Lunar surface, which typically plagued the Apollo missions in how dust particles would cling to the surface of their space suits, and then inadvertantly be dragged inside the Lunar Module where it got into everything, including into the Astronaut's lungs. This natural electrostatic phenomenon is produced by intensive bombardment by unfiltered Solar UV, cosmic rays and Solar wind, and is both intensive and variable on the Lunar surface. In fact the surface of the Moon is somewhat enveloped by its own plasma-like phenomenon. If particularly strong (as it appeared to be during Apollo 12) this could have contributed to the energetic excitation on the Lunar surface that stimulated the blue glowing effects.

The flare-like quality of the blue glow around the astronauts is suggestive of the Kirlian fingertip flares, or of other plasma-type flares, and has little resemblance to the other images presented thus far, on solar glare or Lunar dust. And unlike a dust-smudge, the RF or electrically-excited plasmas which also appear orgonotic in nature, can change their shape and intensity. Both classically-accepted plasma and Reich's orgone energy field phenomenon are fluidic in nature, and move in organic ways, similar to how the aurora phenomenon moves and changes shape. It is not mechanical and has no resemblance to light-rays as seen in flashlight beams or lens flares.

As noted above, the blue-glow around the astronauts is also reminiscent of a kind of open-space high-vacuum "Kirlian" image, which also has a moving plasma-like quality when viewed in moving images. It is similar also to the "Vacor" phenomenon Reich demonstrated in the 1950s, and which I replicated a few years ago, when such a high-vacuum glass tube is charged up inside a strong orgone accumulator. In the case of my own experiment, no external electrical excitation was used at all, and they were only stroked by the human hand, whereupon they would give off a distinct bluish glow. A photograph of my own experimental blue-glowing tube is reproduced below. The color-frequency is very close to that of the blue-glowing astronauts.

Unknowns: Erasing of the "Apollo Blues"

As mentioned in the Introduction, there is very clear evidence that some of the blue colors photographed on the lunar surface were "unexpected", and later removed or "photoshopped" out of these photos before they were posted to internet for public viewing. Some of this removal appears to have been done quite maliciously, aimed directly at the blue-glowing astronauts, by commercial interests hawking Apollo images at a very high price (ie, Time-Life Corporation, see below). Other alterations, as done by NASA technicians, was for understandable and rational reasons in efforts to make the best-possible images available to the public, and were not aimed to erase the blue-glowing astronaut phenomenon specifically. However, a few commercial interests have deliberately erased the blue-astronaut phenomenon specifically, revealing some kind of strange prejudice against it.

Firstly consider the following quote, taken from a special webpage addressing "Apollo Photography and the Color of the Moon" by Michael Light, the same author who assembed the book Full Moon mentioned above:

From Light's discussion, it is clear he honestly felt these color corrections were necessary and rational -- but from my discussion it is also clear that it was flawed logic to assume that anomalous blue colorations on the Lunar surface had to be some kind of film artifact! Some of the removed blue colors may well have been expressions of luminating energy plasmas or orgone fields on the Lunar surface, and not merely "film artifacts". Mr. Light is described as "an artist and photographer" on the flyleaf of his book, obviously technically proficient, but no scientist to be raising serious questions about the energetics of the lunar atmosphere. And the Lunar scientists probably don't address this issue in any full measure because they have only seen the "cleaned up" Lunar surface photographs.

The consequence of this revelation, about the primary photographer organizing the official NASA having made serious alterations to the digital impressions of apparently all of Apollo Lunar mission photographs, specifically rubbing out the "blue-ness" of many of them, indicates someone will ultimately have to go back to NASA headquarters and personally review the original unaltered films, to clarify exactly what changes were made.

In the meanwhile, I will offer up this interesting photo -- which is not an uncommon one -- of the anomalously blue plasma-like orgone energy field around the Moon, captured during a Lunar eclipse.

This phenomenon is classically described as the combined effects of Lunar surface plasmas and electrical fields, interacting with Lunar dusts which are postulated, by mechanisms unclear, to be elevated hundreds of miles above the Lunar surface into a semi-permanent kind of "cloud" which surrounds the Moon. One can make an internet search of this subject and come up with dozens of research papers, and thousands of subject links. It is important to note, however, that while Lunar magnetic and electrical fields have been directly measured -- hence the term Lunar plasmas which parallels the modern acceptance of an interplanetary medium or plasma environment -- the postulate of high-altitude dust particles or a "cloud of dust" surrounding the Moon is not empirically based (to my knowledge) and has no proof. There are only theoretical discussions on the size of dust-grains necessary to produce the observed color effects, which presumes this might be the only possible explanation. I could not find any evidence in an extensive search of NASA Apollo or Lunar documents, for a direct measurement of such Lunar dust particles forming a claimed high-altitude "dust cloud". Consequently, the empirical basis of Lunar plasmas and electrical fields, while certainly being lower in intensity than what I would postulate existed around the Apollo 12 ASLEP site, approximates Reich's descriptions of the orgone energy field, which has already been proven to generate a bluish coloration under very weak electrical excitations at less extreme vacuum pressures (see below), and does so independent of any hypothetical dust-cloud effects.

But for the record, we have similar blue-fields around other astronomical objects, most of which cannot find easy explanations in light-scattering theory, but which do make a lot of sense in the context of electrically-charged plasmas, which are very close in theoretical concept to the theory I would propose, of electrically-charged life-energy fields. For example (thanks to John Wilder for providing the weblinks to these images, all of which appear to be in natural color):

Venus:
http://www.mmedia.is/~bjj/planet_rend/venus_close.jpg

Earth:
http://www.freemars.org/jeff/planets/Earth.jpg
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070320.html
http://www.orgonelab.org/graphics/NEW/Astronomy/EarthAura.jpg

Mars:
http://www.freemars.org/jeff/planets/Mars.htm

Jupiter:
http://cassini-huygens.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-releases-03/images/20031113-pr-a-1.jpg

Enceladus:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/saturns-geyserspouting-moon/2008/03/13/1205126080947.html

Saturn:
http://ciclops.org/view/5401/A_Blue_Northern_Mystery

Titan's atmosphere:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=1512

Neptune:
http://www.freemars.org/jeff/planets/Neptune.htm

Uranus:
http://www.freemars.org/jeff/planets/Uranus.htm

Comet 73P ["True color composite image in logarithmic scale of fragment B of comet 73P"]:
http://www.discoveryspace.net/news/CometMay2006/images/frgB_60sec_med-RGB.jpg

Andromeda Galaxy "Dark Matter" Blue Field
http://www.orgonelab.org/graphics/NEW/Astronomy/Andromeda.jpg

Blueness "Dark Matter" in Open Space
http://www.orgonelab.org/graphics/NEW/Astronomy/BlueSpace.jpg

Time-Life Deletes the "Astronaut Blues"

In January of 2009, when I was preparing an article on this subject, I discovered to my delight that the Time-Life Corporation was selling picture-framed reprints of old back issues of Life Magazine. This included the 12 December 1969 issue with the blue-glowing astronaut on the cover. However, to my shock, I found that they were selling a version which erased the blue glow from around the astronaut! Here is what they are selling, for a mere $110. They had photoshopped the image, to erase the blue color. While their original webpage selling this item has since been taken down, I made a screen-shot of their page which you can download from here.

Who made the decision to sell only blue-erased copies of this old Life Magazine issue and cover-portrait? And for what reason? I sent an email to them in late January 2009, asking for clarification but never received a reply. Why they would do this, I cannot say, but we do know that Time Magazine and Discover Magazine Time-Life products, and Time-Life has the rights to all the old Life magazine content. In the past Time and Discover magazines have printed terribly malicious articles smearing and attacking new and unorthodox scientific findings, cooperating with and holding top positions within malicious anti-science organizations like CSICOP, whose founding and later members have over decades made Lysenkoist-Stalinist attacks against radical naturalists and scientific pioneers like Immanuel Velikovsky and Wilhelm Reich. (See the article by J. Wilder in Pulse #5, Heretic's Notebook, for example.) It also should be noted, that Discover Magazine runs a "Bad Astronomy" website (there are several on internet), where amateur "skeptics" spend their time attacking whatever they don't like in the modern sciences. As I describe below, this article was also subjected to ridicule by the "Bad Astronomy" people.

Discussion and Summary

Taken together, there were a number of overlapping and very special conditions necessary for the blue-glow around the astronauts to appear in a few of the Apollo mission photographs. Repeating from the information given above, these are:

Regarding the various mechanical-optical "explanations" which have heretofore been offered for the blue astronaut images, the following points can once more be reviewed:

9. While some of the laterphotographs from the Apollo 12 film reel Y-46, taken near to the ASLEP site during the astronaut's space walk and work routine independently revealed the presence of a probable "dust smudge" on the camera lens, showing blurry or slightly obscured central portions, none of those photos showed any marked bluish colorations. This was so even for several very bright-white Lunar landscape photos, made rather late in the sequence, which showed blurry smudges, but no blue colors. And the photos showing marked blue colorations showed no blurry or obscured portions, by which a "dust-smudge" could be independently indicated. Dust-smudges clearly identified on the camera lens from other Apollo missions also never produced such blue-glowing astronaut photos. And furthermore, no photos of blue haloes around people or objects has ever been made by cameras on Earth, either by accident or design. We have zero independent evidence of dust-smudges producing blue auras around people or objects, either from the Moon or Earth.

The camera smudge is observed only later in the sequence of Y-46 images. It is very possible that astronaut photographer Pete Conrad's gloves became covered with electrostatically-clinging dust which was then transferred to the camera lens. And given the way electrostatic fields tend to concentrate on the most outward-protruding curved or pointed ends of objects, some of this aggregated at the front center of the glass camera lens.

Consequently, what we see is firstly a real orgonotic plasma-like phenomenon of the blue-glowing astronaut, along with similar but far less intense glows around some of the ASLEP equipment, followed secondly and thereafter by an electrostatically attracted aggregate of Lunar dust particles which can be seen in later sequences when the lunar horizon is being photographed. But no such blue glows appeared when the smudge was most clearly present. I would also argue this was no "smudge" because it does not suddenly appear, but instead comes slowly into existence, as if electrostatics is playing a role in gradually attracting the particles. This would explain the crisp and clear images of blue-glowing phenomenon, which has no blurring from any "smudge" or dusts, following by the gradual appearance of a real dust phenomenon on the camera lens, which shows no blue-light anomalies all by itself.

The above points allow us to conclude, that dust-smudges, camera iris-effects, solar glaring or flare effects, Lunar dust-clouds, and water-vapors from the evaporative coolers, could not be the source of the blue-glowing astronauts. There are no independent proofs of these offered explanations, and much evidence against these postulates in every case.

The difficulty of finding situations when all the proper ingredients existed simultaneously might explain why only a few of these blue-glowing astronaut images exist. Not only must the physical parameters of Lunar vacuum with sufficient photographic angle directed away from the Sun, plus electrical and/or radio frequency excitation of the astronaut and equipment be present, but the background blackness of space must be present to allow registry of the phenomenon. And in some cases, even dead objects such as the ASLEP equipment would show this glowing, which could be explained in terms of their electrical-charge and radio frequency emissions, interaacting with the background orgonotic plasma of the lunar surface. The most brilliant of the images appeared in conjunction with both living astronauts and such ASLEP equipment being in close proximity.

None of the other inert objects or boulders photographed during the Apollo missions have ever shown such a glowing blue, to my knowledge, in spite of the hundreds of photos made, at all different kinds of camera and Sun-angles. And a shift in photographic emphasis in later Apollo missions revealed few or no photos of subsequent ASLEP site routines, with astronauts setting up the equipment or standing near to it, by which we could reasonably ascertain that the phenomenon was, or was not, occurring. On top of this, we have the added complication mentioned above, that the digital versions of the Apollo imagery, which is what I used for making my analysis, was altered by the technicans who did the digitizing, to remove some of the blue hues and colors -- based upon their faulty assumptions that such blueness "should not be present".

In constructing my own postulates and theory about these blue-astronaut photos, in my own publications I have already given a rough summary of experimental and observational evidence in favor of Wilhelm Reich's discovery of the orgone energy, or life-energy, and how some of his experiments -- replicated and verified in my own laboratory -- refute the standard vacuum-ionization theory of orthodox physics. Notable are Reich's orgone-charged vacuum-tube "VACOR" experiments. A recent issue of our journal, Pulse of the Planet #5, carried a color photograph and explanation of our blue-glowing orgone-charged vacuum tube, which was evacuated down to below 0.5 micron pressure, considered to be a non-ionizable vacuum. These orgone-charged high-vacuum VACOR tubes as Reich called them, glow with a similar blue color-hue as the blue-glowing astronaut, without the need for exciting radio frequencies or significant electricity. This same photo was already reproduced above.

Standard ionization theory is also undermined by another set of related observations, of "Auroras at the Tree-Tops", or "surface auroras". Surface auroras should not exist, as the atmosphere of Earth is not ionizable at the shallow pressures even as found on the tallest mountains. But on rare occasions, aurora phenomenon have been seen dancing right at tree-top levels, sometimes by scientifically-trained observers. However, these reports tend to be rejected and ignored, because it constitutes a crashing down of the ionization theory of the aurora, and a major scientific heresy. Surface auroras have even been photographed, however, and are a part of native folklore in the Arctic regions. They are similar to ground-level "Earthquake lights" which in spite of the piezo-electric theory or the ionization theory, exist as a steady glow, or undulating just above the tree-tops like a surface aurora, and not as some kind of quick flash-discharge. Their color also is blue or blue-grey, or sometimes greenish, in keeping with an atmospheric plasma of orgone-like qualities. I've gathered info on this latter phenomenon here:
http://www.orgonelab.org/auroras.htm

In short, orthodox science still does not have any clear explanation for the blue-glowing Apollo 12 astronauts, one of whose photos I placed on the cover of the Orgone Accumulator Handbook. back in 1989, as "a visible expression of the human orgone (life) energy field".

While it is true that we may not have firm evidence to conclusively prove that these two blue-glowing Apollo photos are due to a luminating plasma-like orgone energy "life-field" of the astronauts, it is reasonable to speculate that this is so. The case in favor of the life-energy-field explanation is strengthened in consideration that all of the various explanations offered by classical science -- of Sun glare, Lunar dust, water-vapors and dust-smudges -- fail upon closer examination.

After examination of the various arguments and evidence, these Apollo astronaut images provide us with a clear scientific anomaly which has resisted the best efforts of orthodox science to explain and understand. The anomaly appears more fully in agreement with the blue-glowing orgone life-energy hypothesis of Wilhelm Reich, than with more classically-understood optical phenomena alone. Perhaps some experimental efforts might clarify the situation, such as trying to reproduce this phenomenon here on Earth.

If this blue-glowing phenomenon has nothing to do with radio frequencies, high-vacuum and plasmatic life-energy fields, as per my arguments as given above, then a similar blue-glowing optical phenomenon should be reproducible with ordinary cameras under carefully-reproduced solar-glare, fog-moisture and dust-cloud or dust-smudge conditions. However, to my knowledge, no such photos have ever been produced here on Earth. And since we do not have any clear examples of this phenomenon as made by amateurs or professionals under accidental or laboratory-created conditions, it gives more substance to the arguments made here, that it is an expression of the plasma-like human energy field in high vacuum, being excited into brilliance by radio frequency excitation, much in the same manner as we see in nature with the auroras, or in laboratories with the Kirlian bio-plasma photographs, or the Reich VACOR tubes.

POSTSCRIPT: The "Bad Astronomy" Website Discovers the 'Astronaut Blues'

For the record -- most people who know my work will also know about this -- I have been under severe attack for decades by members of the anti-scientific "skeptic's groups" such as CSICOP. The hate tactics have included smear articles, hate-mail sent to my employers and family members, and to editors of journals where I have published, to professionals who invite me to speak at conferences, etc., plus internet missives and lies, and even death-threats. And among those scientists who have openly shown an interest in the works of Wilhelm Reich, I am not alone in this regard. Reich was subjected to it himself, and it led to his death and the burning of his books. The "skeptics" then toasted each other for a "job well done", and went snooping out new victims. Some of the "skeptic-informer" types lurk like trolls on my OBRL-News e-mail newsletter list, and so whenever an opportunity presents itself, they will take my latest materials and go "tell on me" like spite-filled children, to some others whom they consider to be in "higher authority", and then slander materials appear in the "lame-stream" media. So it was not surprising that after the first preliminary version of this article on the "Astronaut Blues" was firstly posted to internet, someone alerted the Bad Astronomy website about it.

The discussion on Bad Astronomy about my "Astronaut Blues" article wasn't particularly informing, and in a few places descended into the typical "skeptic" ridicule, but actually was helpful in that it prompted me to complete this longer version of the same article, which I had planned to do later on. The issues they raised had been raised before, by myself or others with whom I've had private conversations, so it was important to address those issues in an open and direct manner. This has now been done. And my article goes well beyond the few issues they raised, being more comprehensive than the original one, and that's fine. But also I should say, and hope someone with authentic scientific knowledge in the Bad Astronomy group might read this, or pass it along to them: Authentic scientific discussions cannot take place within forums where the overwhelming majority of participants are hiding their real identity behind pseudonyms, and hence feel unrestrained to throw out contempt, slander and ridicule. And no "scientist" or authentic student ever learned anything new by hanging out on internet forums with jackasses and hyenas. Consequently, by failing to demand open and honest behavior from their members, they limit what positive effectiveness they might otherwise have. If Goddard was alive and doing his early experiments in rocketry today, would these same "Bad Astronomy" arm-chair experts be ridiculing, hee-hawing, and making the same kind of know-it-all put-downs of him? It appears so.

Additional Reference Materials

Apollo 12 Image Library (This site has the best collections of images, with discussions and time-lines.)
http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/images12.html#6806

Apollo Image Atlas, 70mm Hasselblad Image Catalog, Apollo 12 (These are very low resolution without true color, no blues are significantly observable here even if on the other photo image sites, but it is useful as a time-line reference.)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/catalog/70mm/mission/?12

Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/

++++++

NOTE: The two main blue-glowing astronaut photos given above are available in 8" x 12" prints, from this webpage:
http://www.naturalenergyworks.net
(Scroll down to lower right-hand side.)

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