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Apollo 12

The second crewed Moon landing mission (1969-11-14 to 1969-11-24), which set down its lunar module Intrepid beside the earlier unmanned Surveyor 3 probe in Oceanus Procellarum and is the subject of Richard C. Hoagland's claims of artificial ruins and deliberate alignments at the landing site.

1969-11-24 · Oceanus Procellarum · National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) · Crewed lunar landing mission

Apollo 12 was the second crewed lunar landing mission conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landing the lunar module Intrepid on the Moon on 1969-11-241. Following Apollo 11, whose official landing-location uncertainty had persisted for weeks after the crew returned and were debriefed, NASA sought to refine its landing procedures2. Apollo 12 was accordingly targeted to touch down within walking distance of the unmanned Surveyor 3 probe, which required NASA to develop a means of real-time pinpoint navigation3. Surveyor 3 had already soft-landed in Oceanus Procellarum a few hundred metres from the eventual Apollo 12 site, thirty-one months before Conrad and Bean arrived4, and NASA had marked out the future landing site with the probe even before Apollo 11 flew5. Bean later inspected Surveyor 3 on the surface; Richard C. Hoagland said the probe had soft-landed there more than two years earlier, on Adolf Hitler’s birthday6. The NASA mission film Pinpoint for Science (National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) film) took its title from the crew’s successful pinpoint landing7.

Hoagland made Pinpoint for Science the starting point of his research into the mission8, examining original Oxberry Animation Stand animations that NASA’s contract producers had built from Conrad and Bean’s Hasselblad stills of the lunar surface9. Hoagland said that if the producers had placed rush prints of the Hasselblad frames under intense studio lights to create the pans and zooms, then invisible detail in the otherwise black lunar sky over the landing site might still be recoverable by computer despite several generations of copying onto 16mm release prints10. He said that enhanced frames taken from NASA’s print by John Stevens’ equipment showed reflective, glass-like ruins over the horizon and massive inclined buttresses slanting away beyond it11. Hoagland regards these buttresses as independent confirmation of his ancient lunar dome hypothesis12, and said his confidence in the theory grew because Apollo 14 and Apollo 12 had photographed what he took to be the same crystalline geometry in roughly the same region13: the two landing sites lie approximately 196 kilometres apart14, the closest together of any Apollo missions15. Most of the lunar surface photographs in Ken Johnston’s collection came from these two missions16.

Hoagland has also proposed a set of astronomical alignments centred on the Apollo 12/Surveyor 3 site. He said the site’s sky pattern showed Orion aligned on the lunar horizon precisely as President John Fitzgerald Kennedy called for a crewed Moon landing at his 1961-05-25 Kennedy Joint Session of Congress speech, before any spacecraft had touched down there17. He calculated that the star Mintaka, in Orion’s Belt, stood at 19.5 degrees above Oceanus Procellarum at the moment of the Apollo 12 landing on 1969-11-1918, interpreting this as a mathematical coding for dimensional transition19, and separately said he had found Mintaka rising precisely on the site’s eastern horizon at the moment of Kennedy’s 1961 announcement20. He reads the sky pattern at the moment of Apollo 11’s touchdown, viewed from the Apollo 12 site, as an alignment he considers significant within ancient Egyptian stellar religion21, and interprets the coincidence of Kennedy’s announcement with Orion’s Belt rising at both the Surveyor 3 site and the Apollo 12 site as symbolic of resurrection22. On this basis Hoagland considers the Apollo 12/Surveyor 3 site, rather than the Apollo 11 site, to be the anchor point of a broader network of what he calls ritual locations, which his research team reconstructed as also including the Giza Plateau in Giza Plateau Egypt, the Apollo 11 landing site, the Viking 1 and Mars Pathfinder landing sites on Mars, and Cydonia23.

Separately from the alignment claims, Apollo 12 photograph AS12-46-6807 shows Bean wearing one of the mission’s gold visors (Apollo helmet visors) and carrying the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP)24; the hexagonal halo visible around Bean in the same photograph is internal lens flare from the Hasselblad camera25. The mission also carried the Westinghouse Field Sequential Color Camera as its primary imaging camera, without a Slow Scan TeleVision camera as backup26; a few minutes after Bean deployed it on the surface, he pointed it directly at the sun, badly damaging its receiver and rendering the camera useless27.

During the mission, Conrad and the rest of the crew were specifically asked to experiment with observing the astronaut light flash phenomenon, according to Charlie Hickson28. According to the Apollo 12 medical debriefing tape, Conrad’s sleeping position on the left side of the spacecraft was suggested as the reason he perceived more flashes in his left eye29, and the same record notes that astronauts on earlier spaceflights had reported seeing light flashes at night with their eyes closed30.

  1. Hoagland focused his research on the 16mm NASA film Pinpoint for Science, released just after Apollo 12
    “Hoagland decided to focus first on the 16mm film that NASA had released just after Apollo 12, called *Pinpoint for Science*.”
    Dark Mission ch11:100630-100745
  2. NASA sought to refine landing procedures after Apollo 11's location uncertainty dragged on for weeks
    “Because this official "landing uncertainty" had dragged on for several weeks, well after the crew had returned and been debriefed, NASA was determined to refine the lunar landing procedures for the next Mission, Apollo 12.”
    Dark Mission ch11:101235-101454
  3. Apollo 12 was targeted to land within walking distance of Surveyor 3, requiring real-time pinpoint navigation
    “since the second landing was being optimistically targeted within walking distance of the two-year-old unmanned Surveyor 3 ... NASA had to come up with a fool-proof means for real-time "pinpoint navigation"”
    Dark Mission ch11:101468-101711
  4. Pinpoint for Science was named for Conrad and Bean's successful pinpoint landing
    “Ergo the name of that official mission film, after Pete Conrad and Alan Bean's incredibly successful "pinpoint" lunar landing.”
    Dark Mission ch11:101792-101910
  5. Hoagland examined Oxberry Animation Stand animations built from original Hasselblad stills taken by Conrad and Bean
    “He was focusing on original Oxberry Animation Stand (another Hollywood device, used to animate still photographs in movies) animations that NASA's "contract producers" had incorporated in the film—pans and zooms of "stills" from the original Apollo 12 Hasselblad shots taken on the Moon by the Apollo 12 crew, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean.”
    Dark Mission ch11:102981-103312
  6. Hoagland reasoned that intense studio lighting used to create the pans and zooms might make invisible detail in the lunar sky recoverable by computer
    “Hoagland reasoned that if the *Pinpoint for Lunar Landing* producers had taken rush 8x10 hardcopy prints from the original Hasselblad Moon shots, placed them under the intense lights on a professional Oxberry Animation Stand ... then on those frames of the 16mm release print, even after several generations of copying, some vital, invisible detail in the otherwise pitch black lunar skies over the Apollo 12 landing site might remain—still detectable by the computer.”
    Dark Mission ch11:104051-104584
  7. Enhanced frames from the print reportedly showed reflective, glass-like ruins and massive inclined buttresses beyond the horizon
    “The enhanced 16mm frames (captured by John Stevens' machine from NASA's official *Pinpoint for Science* print) unquestionably revealed more "reflective, glass-like ruins" over the horizon from the Apollo 12 landing site, and the *same* massive inclined buttresses, slanting down beyond the lunar horizon in the distance.”
    Dark Mission ch11:104820-105131
  8. Hoagland regards the buttresses as independent confirmation of his ancient lunar dome hypothesis
    “but it was the striking, unmistakable appearance of those slanted buttresses, seen on a much bigger scale from the Apollo 12 landing site, which gave Hoagland independent but vital confirmation for his entire model of the "ancient lunar domes."”
    Dark Mission ch11:105784-106021
  9. Hoagland became more convinced given that Apollo 14 and Apollo 12 had photographed similar geometry in roughly the same area
    “Given that two Apollo missions—14 and now 12—had photographed the same crystalline geometry, and apparently in generally the same location ... Hoagland was more convinced than ever that his lunar dome theory was correct.”
    Dark Mission ch11:106030-106287
  10. The Apollo 14 and Apollo 12 landing sites are approximately 196 kilometres apart
    “only 122 miles apart”
    Dark Mission ch11:106226-106241
  11. Conrad, frustrated at describing the experience, gave the same stock answer each time he was asked
    “The Apollo 12 commander, the late Pete Conrad, got so frustrated with his inadequacy at answering the same question that he resorted to giving the same, banal answer each time: “‘Super! Really enjoyed it!””
    Dark Mission ch11:154443-154644
  12. Most prints in Ken Johnston's collection came from the Apollo 12 and Apollo 14 missions
    “Most of the prints in Ken's priceless collection at his home... turned out to be from earlier Missions—Apollo 12 and Apollo 14.”
    Dark Mission ch11:91735-91906
  13. The Apollo 12 and Apollo 14 sites, in Oceanus Procellarum, were the closest together of any Apollo landings
    “The 12 and 14 landing sites were unique in the entire Apollo Program—in that they were closer together than any other landings... Only 122 miles separated the two Apollo touchdowns in Oceanus Procellarum (the 'Sea of Storms').”
    Dark Mission ch11:91959-92232
  14. Surveyor 3 touched down a few hundred metres from where Apollo 12 would land thirty-one months later
    “the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft had touched down in Oceanus Procellarum, just a few hundred feet from where Apollo 12 would land thirty-one months later”
    Dark Mission ch12:133097-133247
  15. Hoagland describes the landing site as aligned with Orion as Kennedy called for a Moon mission in May 1961
    “With the discovery that this Apollo 12/Surveyor 3 site was, somehow, seen as “sacred” long *before* any spacecraft actually touched down—as gauged by the stunningly exact alignment of Orion on its lunar horizon, precisely as President Kennedy called for “sending a man to the Moon” in May of 1961”
    Dark Mission ch12:162648-162940
  16. Hoagland's team included the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 sites, Giza, Viking 1's site, Mars Pathfinder's site and Cydonia in a proposed set of ritual locations
    “After considerable discussion, we agreed on our own “reconstruction” of the following “ritual temple” locations: The Giza Plateau on Earth (for obvious reasons); the Apollo 11 (because it was the location of the first manned landing) and Apollo 12 (because of the landing on Hitler’s birthday and “the Kennedy Connection”) lunar landing sites; Viking 1 (because it was the first NASA landing on the planet Mars); the Pathfinder landing sites (because of the 19.5 x 33º location); and, of course, Cydonia (because of the Face and City Complex).”
    Dark Mission ch12:163118-163653
  17. Bean inspected Surveyor 3, which Hoagland notes had soft-landed there more than two years earlier, on Hitler's birthday
    “Fig. 5-7 - Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean inspects the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which had soft landed in virtually the same location as Apollo 12 (note Lunar Module on Surveyor crater rim), but more than two years earlier - on *Adolf Hitler’s birthday* (NASA).”
    Dark Mission ch12:166580-166831
  18. Hoagland reads the sky pattern over the site at the moment of Apollo 11 touchdown as an alignment significant in ancient Egyptian religion
    “Fig. 5-8 - Apollo 12 landing site sky pattern at Apollo 11 touchdown, ~850 miles due east. Orion’s belt on the eastern horizon is an extremely significant alignment in the ancient Egyptian stellar religion - unmistakably signifying “resurrection.” But … of *what*? (Hoagland)”
    Dark Mission ch12:166848-167114
  19. Hoagland interprets Orion's Belt standing 19.5 degrees above the horizon at touchdown on 1969-11-19 as coding for dimensional transition
    “Fig. 5-11 - Apollo 12 landing site sky pattern at Apollo 12 touchdown, November 19, 1969. Orion’s Belt stands 19.5 degrees above the Western lunar horizon - a mathematical coding for “dimensional transition.” (Hoagland)”
    Dark Mission ch12:167511-167721
  20. Hoagland sees the timing of Kennedy's announcement relative to Orion's rising at both the Surveyor 3 and Apollo 12 sites as symbolic
    “The announcement is timed as Orion’s (Osiris’) Belt stars rise precisely on the eastern lunar horizon, both at the future Surveyor 3 landing site (April 20, 1967 - Hitler’s birthday) and the *future* site of Apollo 12’s revisit (November 19, 1969). Disturbingly -- in a Space Agency filled with newly-imported Nazi scientists and engineers, the symbolism is again one of “resurrection.” Foreshadowing... what? (Hoagland)”
    Dark Mission ch12:168171-168582
  21. NASA had already marked the future Apollo 12 site by landing Surveyor 3 there before Apollo 11 flew
    “At the time of the Apollo 11 landing and Aldrin's "Osiris/Isis ceremony" back at Tranquility Base, NASA had already ritually marked the site by landing the unmanned Surveyor 3 probe there.”
    Dark Mission ch12:32976-33158
  22. The Lunar Module Intrepid landed on 1969-11-24
    “the Apollo 12 landing site—at the precise date and time of the Lunar Module Intrepid's landing, November 24, 1969.”
    Dark Mission ch12:45775-45884
  23. Hoagland calculated that Mintaka hovered at 19.5 degrees above Oceanus Procellarum at the time of landing
    “Once again, he found a *major* alignment above the landing site: Orion's belt star "Mintaka," hovering right at 19.5° … over Oceanus Procellarum [Fig. 5-11].”
    Dark Mission ch12:45890-46044
  24. Hoagland found Mintaka rising precisely on the eastern horizon of the site at the moment of Kennedy's announcement
    “with Mintaka, the same star in the belt of Orion which would stand 19.5º over the landing site when Apollo 12 actually made it eight *years* in the future … rising *precisely,* now, dead on the eastern horizon of the *future* Surveyor 3/Apollo 12 landing site [Fig. 5-13].”
    Dark Mission ch12:49593-49861
  25. Hoagland considers the Apollo 12/Surveyor 3 site, rather than Apollo 11's, the anchor point of his proposed lunar ritual network
    “strongly implied that *this* was the "anchor point" of the entire "lunar ritual network" … *not* the Apollo 11 landing site.”
    Dark Mission ch12:50268-50387
  26. Photograph AS12-46-6807 shows Bean wearing a gold visor and carrying the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP)
    “Color Fig. 7 - Apollo 12 frame AS12-46-6807 shows astronaut Alan Bean, wearing specially tuned gold visor, carrying ALSEP experiment package.”
    Dark Mission ch14:47082-47215
  27. The hexagonal halo around Bean in the same photograph is internal lens flare from the Hasselblad camera
    “Hexagonal halo around Bean is Hasselblad camera internal lens flare.”
    Dark Mission ch14:47320-47382
  28. The Westinghouse Field Sequential Color Camera flew as the primary camera without a Slow Scan TeleVision backup
    “Interestingly, the color camera *was* carried on Apollo 12 as the primary camera, without the SSTV as a back-up.”
    Dark Mission ch20:10199-10308
  29. Minutes after deployment, Bean pointed the colour camera at the sun, damaging its receiver and rendering it useless
    “A few minutes after deployment of the camera, Alan Bean managed to violate his training and point it directly into the sun, which badly damaged the receiver. This rendered the camera useless.”
    Dark Mission ch20:10312-10495
  30. Conrad's sleeping position on the left side of the spacecraft was suggested as the reason for more flashes in his left eye
    “I'm trying to tell him the reason he did is because his, where he slept, was always on the left side of the spacecraft.”
    NASA-UAP-D008, Apollo 12 Medical Debriefing - Tape 12, 1969 00:02:00.5-00:02:08.6
  31. Conrad and other crew were specifically asked to experiment with observing the light-flash phenomenon
    “we were asked to specifically experiment with this.”
    NASA-UAP-D008, Apollo 12 Medical Debriefing - Tape 12, 1969 00:02:30.3-00:02:33.6
  32. Astronauts on earlier flights had reported seeing light flashes at night with their eyes closed
    “some guy up, I got the letters, paperwork somewhere... he said, airport is seeing flashes in a spacecraft. At night with their eyes closed.”
    NASA-UAP-D008, Apollo 12 Medical Debriefing - Tape 12, 1969 L6-L10

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