We are long overdue in presenting this remarkable image (to the very best of our knowledge discovered by Paul Mcleod, an Anomaly Hunters member, and first publically reported on KKSamurai's "Mars: A Red Planet Roundtable" BBS) as one of our Image Roundtable projects. It represents the most ambitious project to date in terms of assembling various records regarding the discovery and interpretation of an image and its contents. Some of these files are still being sought since they no longer exist on the Internet. While still ignored in the presentations of many prominent anomaly researchers, this image is still one of the most frequently discussed (and frequently discovered) images that comes to mind. In spite of the difficulties it has had finding a permanent place in the wide spread anomalist literature, it has nonetheless, for example, managed to enjoy such distinctions as being included in Dr. Tom Van Flandern's press conference presentations on Martian Anomalies.

In assembling the pages that follow, we remain fully committed to assembling the most complete coverage regarding this image as possible. If you have materials regarding this image that appear to be missing here, please feel welcome to post a notice to our most recent Anomalous Mars BBS, or to contact the Anomaly Hunters "Ringleaders".

The feature in this image that inspires the most awe thus far is the "alien base", an astonishingly rectangular object with a dark centered circular feature, shown here.

A number of other items from this image have also found their way into the Anomaly Hunters Image Gallery, under the categories of both Stuctures and Vehicles, but the image proves to be so rich in strange content that many more such clips are possible, and in spite of the amount of study the image has received, many anomalies in it still await to be identified specifically and announced.

The area imaged in AB108405 (from the MGS Aerobraking phase) is located in Candor Chasma, one of NASA's logical places to look for water... and where there is water, it stands to reason, we may have the best chance of finding signs of ancient civilizations. In this instance, as well as numerous others, that logic has help up well.

At right: a reduced version of AB108405, as we are most accustomed to seeing it, in the "NOT map projected" orientation, essentially upside down from how its landscape actually exists on Mars. The "alien base" appears near the bottom.

Malin Space Science Systems ancillary data for image AB108504:

MOC narrow-angle image AB1-08405
SOUTHEAST FLOOR OF WEST CANDOR CHASMA

Acquisition parameters
Image ID (picno): AB1-08405
Image start time: 1998-01-06T06:12:58.03 SCET
Image width: 1024 pixels
Image height: 3968 pixels
Line integration time: 1.3200 millisec
Pixel aspect ratio: 1.45
Crosstrack summing: 1
Downtrack summing: 1
Compression type: PREDICTIVE-221
Gain mode: 8A (hexadecimal)
Offset mode: 27 (decimal)
Derived values
Longitude of image center: 75.45°W
Latitude of image center: 6.81°S
Scaled pixel width: 4.59 meters
Scaled image width: 4.69 km
Scaled image height: 27.22 km
Solar longitude (Ls): 250.20°
Local True Solar Time: 13.92 decimal hours
Emission angle: 32.92°
Incidence angle: 30.18°
Phase angle: 25.27°
North azimuth: 267.15°
Sun azimuth: 140.50°
Spacecraft altitude: 1074.24 km
Slant distance: 1220.24 km

Screen captures of images files for the two oldest reports recovered thus far regarding AB108405, the two oldest communications to be complied here, exactly as they originally looked when they appeared on KKSamurai's "Mars: A Red Planet Roundtable" BBS, along with the titles of the replies. These are the first reports from Paul that possible vehicular objects may be adjacent to the "alien base" or "block". The first reports of the "base" itself from Paul are even earlier. One possible vehicle in question here is featured in the Anomaly Hunters Image Gallery under Vehicles, along with other candidates from this image.

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