slk@evansville.net

Francis Ridge is a PR consultant for Mid-Tech, an American company involved in the production of a new electronic toy. A 40-year veteran of serious and respected UFO researcher, he was a subcommittee chairman for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (1960-1971), which was one of the rapid response teams assigned to the University of Colorado UFO Project in 1968, and later a Field Investigator for the Center for UFO Studies and Indiana's MUFON State Director in 1989. Ridge has investigated hundreds of cases. His computer database lists over 4,000 entries for the region covering Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky & Tennessee. He operated and directed the MADAR Project (UFO detection) from 1970 to 1995. As head of The Indiana Group he also was in charge of Indiana's Rapid Deployment Team of over 30 FIs. In 1994 he wrote a book describing his efforts, "Regional Encounters: The FC Files".

Always interested in the Moon, but never properly equipped, Ridge became interested in a serious look at our nearest neighbor to investigate, among other things, the Hoagland claims and other items he refers to as "fast-walkers". In the fall of 1995 he set up TLP, The Lunascan Project, an ETBI (Earth-Based Telescopic Imaging) program to image and study LTPs (Lunar Transient Phenomena). The project purchased and used a massive 16" f/4.5 Newtonian until it built its own 10" f/6 in the summer of 1997. Using live and recorded CCD technology, millions of images have been obtained. With the advent of the internet and email, Ridge enlisted the aid of over 200 Lunascan listmembers to fund and operate the project and set up The Lunascan Project website:
http://www.astrosurf.com/lunascan/

Numerous projects include the use of the Antonin Rukl system to file data and images. The project imaged U092196, something possibly orbiting the Moon, on September 21, 1996. Ridge believes the Apollo project was mostly a space-race and that we need to go back to the Moon. In an effort to do this, he has constructed an educational web file called "Moon Shot" and another called "The Apollo Image Catalog". All images and records are filed in appropriate Rukl section directories. Although public education is the primary goal of TLP, the search for artifacts indicating possible SETI implications runs a close second.
http://members.evansville.net/slk/lunascan.html
http://www.nicap.org/index.htm