I thought I'd look at a few of the articles from the Journal of Scientific Exploration.
This one - abstract at [www.scientificexploration.org] with .pdf there as well, makes a claim about something filmed during an Apollo mission.
You need to read the .pdf obviously to get the whole gist of the argument, but here is the abstract:
"Hiroshi Nakamura, Takaramachi 1-3-2, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo 124-0005, Japan

Video data of NASA Film CL-862 showing a saucer-shaped object moving in an unusual trajectory above the moon is examined. It is alleged by Donald B. Ratsch that footage was taken by John W. Young, who was spacecraft commander during the Apollo 16 mission, as the spacecraft approached the moon. Image analysis is performed to determine if the object in question is Earth as claimed by Karsten Voigt, even though James Oberg, who also thought it was Earth, has retracted that explanation because of work by Jack Kasher.

Our analysis indicates that the object is neither Earth, the command module, or debris. Our analysis shows that footage was not obtained when Apollo 16 was approaching the moon. We have shown this by using the age of the moon in the film scene. We show that the footage was obtained when Apollo 16 was leaving the moon. This analysis is supported by corroborative data of metric camera images. AS16-M-3051, -3052, and -3053, even though there were no metric photos taken at the same time as the CL-862 footage.

Our analysis shows that the film was taken by Apollo 16 between 2:30 and 3:00 UTC on 25 April 1972 from about 2,200 km above 10.2 degrees north latitude and 89.1 degrees east longitude. Assuming the object is roughly the same size and distance as some craters, the diameter was 60 to 120 km!

The disc object appears to have vanished into the moon shadow 4 seconds after its initial appearance in the film, but it never moved much farther away from the Apollo 16 craft into the dark space background. The object appears to have been on a collision course with the moon. However, it is unlikely that a minor planet (large meteor) crashed into the moon because a moonquake did not occur on 25 April 1972; therefore, the object was not a minor planet.

Furthermore, the object appears to be an artificial structure consisting of a disc that has a prominent dome at the center. The apparent motion toward the moon which, nevertheless, avoided collision with the moon, and the unsuitable shape for a minor planet suggest that the object is a kind of very large extraterrestrial spaceship.

However, we ask NASA for the disclosure of more information while refraining from emphasizing premature explanations for the object. "


Oberg however has more to say:
[www.badastronomy.com]
"Here's the full story:

The image is authentic, it's from a sequence taken as the CSM departs the Moon.

I talked to each of the crew, they don't recall seeing it in real time or noticing in in post-flight film review, which only means they categorized it as just another film anomaly.

Since there were several still and cine cameras in use during this mission phase -- the beginning of the trip home and the last view in their lifetimes of the Moon close up -- the three astronauts were taking turns at windows and firing off all the rest of their film. The reason I can induce there was not a real object outside the window is that none of the other cameras got a shot of anything remotely similar.

The film reached the public through a 1979 project of mine to put together a 10-minute film of visual anomalies often misidentified or misrepresented as UFOs. Along with my requested scenes, video technician Don Pickard at NASA-Houston put in this sequence, which he remembered from the mission and told me showed Earth in the background. I annotated my 'scene list' accordingly.

Years later, Don Ratsch and John Kasher objected to this identification, saying the lighting showed the geometry was wrong. Belatedly I checked this, and confirmed they were right -- Earth is nowhere near this field of view.

Seeing the image in motion gives a clue to the likeliest explanation. It bounces around since it is a handheld camera, and the bounces of the image are angularly GREATER than the bounces of the edge of the window. In other words, it's not a physical object outside the window, it moves like a reflection would move.

A camera technician suggested to me that it was a reflection of the sunlit lens assembly of the camera itself. This is an attractive hypothesis since sunlight streaming into the cabin could have illuminated just the front end of the camera, and since if you watch the entire sequence the arc of the lens that is illuminated changes. Either the shape of the 'true UFO' changes, or the illuminated portion of the handheld camera's lens changes.

Window reflections of bright interior structures are frequently seen in handheld views from inside Apollo spacecraft.

To make this into a 'UFO', one has to:

1. Show only stills from the film, and not view the motion images.

2. Disregard -- or denounce as falsified -- the testimony of the actual witnesses, John Young, Ken Mattingly, and Charlie Duke, all three of whom I have known and worked with for decades, and two of whom are still personal friends of mine.

3. Disregard the illumination conditions of the imaging.

Of course, rabid UFO buffs and HB's do this all the time -- many of them are spiritual, cultural, and ethical brothers under the skin.

Jim Oberg "

Doug Weller

Director The Hall of Ma'at
Doug's Skeptical Archaeology site::
[www.ramtops.co.uk]