That was 1981 but an actual "X" or "V" would have been unknown. It was simply "XV" for "15" the number of the mission. I find the coincidence humorous. Another memory was when we were standing out at the airfield, actually looking up at the Moon and I ask him "What do you think when you look up there?" he simply said in a kind of admiring tone "A home away from home..." He was a great guy, very humble. Thank you, Jimmy Ray -----Original Message----- From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jack Jones Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:51 AM To: AZ-Observing Subject: [AZ-Observing] Moon Showing its X Tonight What year was that, I wonder? According to Phil Harrington, the effect was named "the Lunar X" in 2004 by David Chapman, a Canadian amateur. It snowballed from there. He did say Chapman's wasn't the first observation tho, and was on the old Lick Obs hi-res photos and got into many pubs over the years. My info is coming from a chart in Harrington's book (a real magnum opus), "Cosmic Challenge", from software generated by the Lunar Terminator Visualization Tool (search on LTVT) by Jim Mosher and Henrik Bondo. The next suitable event is Feb 6 at 11:33 pm. Jack >Thank you for the heads up Jack! Was worth the trip out (you might have picked a warmer less breezy night :-). The mention of "X" and "V" made me smile as it brought back the memory of a time where I got to work on a project (advertising campaign) for about a week with Jim Irwin (Apollo 15). One of the things I remember him mentioning was one of the ways to identify a genuine Apollo 15 mission patch, which was the crater stylized ")(" and "|/" behind the flying arches. Heck they had the buggy up there, maybe Jim and Dave did a few burnouts and brodies and left the "X" and "V" up there :-P (Conspiracy theory alert ;-) Thank you, >Jimmy Ray -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.