A UFO researcher was examining archival photos from the 1971 NASA moon mission Apollo 15 recently, when he discovered what he says is evidence of a mysterious craft, seemingly hovering over the lunar horizon. But the researcher warned UFO enthusiasts that the apparent sighting could be anything — and is not necessarily evidence that an extraterrestrial observer was keeping tabs on the fourth trip to the moon by human beings.

“Dudes, I just upload what I find, I believe it’s put there to be found,” said the researcher who goes by the YouTube screen name Streetcap1. “Remember a UFO is an unidentified flying object not an alien craft.”

A fellow UFO researcher, Scott Waring whose blog UFO Sightings Daily catalogs the always voluminous number of UFO sightings worldwide, proved somewhat less skeptical about the origins of the object spotted in the photo, taken on the surface of the moon sometime during the 67 hours that astronauts David Scott and James Irwin were on the lunar surface, between July 30 and August 2, 1971.

“The object… does appear to be some kind of craft, but with a shape unlike anything I have seen before,” Waring wrote last week. “Sure it looks like a triangle, but actually it seems more like three large tubular sections that become one. This is probably a drone keeping an eye on the the Apollo 15 mission, perhaps out of curiosity, or perhaps out of fear.”

Here is the original NASA photo, in which the UFO appears to be nothing more than a tiny speck in the extreme distance.

And here is an enhanced version, with the UFO highlighted inside a red circle by Waring.

Further enhancements of the 44-year old alleged UFO NASA photo can be seen in Streetcap1’s video, viewable above.

Not everyone was on board with the alleged discovery by the UFO researcher, however.

“It’s certainly one of the more unusual UFOs we’ve seen,” wrote Thomas Tamblyn in the U.K. edition of the Huffington Post. “Of course the real likelihood is that this is just a fragment of dust on the camera lens or a developing error.”

Maybe. But just five days after Streecap1 made his find, Waring himself — perhaps feeling inspired — pored through a stack of NASA Apollo photos. And sure enough, in the following photo from the 1969 Apollo 12 moon landing, Waring found what he says is evidence of a UFO monitoring that human space flight as well.

Enhanced, the object “observing” Apollo 12 looks like this.

Waring says that this UFO “was probably circling the area to observe the mission.”

Or are these latest NASA UFO discoveries from Apollo 15 and Apollo 12 just tiny imperfections in images that have been sitting around for 44 and 46 years, respectively?