The genesis of modern searches for observable meteoritic phenomena on
the Moon is the paper by Lincoln La Paz in Popular Astronomy magazine in
1938. In it he argued that the absence of observed fashes of meteoritic
impacts on the Moon might be interpreted to mean that these bodies are
destroyed as luminous meteors in an extremely rarefed lunar atmosphere.
The paper suggested the possibility of systematic searches for such
possible lunar meteors. With these concepts in mind, I was surprised to
note a transient moving bright speck on the Moon on July 10, 1941. It
appeared to behave very much as a lunar meteor would - except that the
poorly estimated duration would lead to a strongly hyperbolic
heliocentric velocity. Thus, the idea of systematic searches for both p-
sible lunar meteors and meteoritic impact fashes was born. It was
appreciated that much time might need to be expended to achieve any
positive results. Systematic searches were carried out by others and
myself chiefy in the years 1945-1965 and became a regular program at the
newly founded Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, or ALPO.