Apollo 11 Aldrin reports bright light source in lunar orbit — possible laser or sunlight reflection

In lunar orbit following ascent, Aldrin observed a fairly bright stationary light source as the Earth rose above the lunar horizon and initially attributed it to a possible ground-based laser. On the return transit, he and possibly other crew members observed a similar phenomenon near Earth that appeared through a monocular to be sunlight reflecting off a smooth body of water such as a lake. Aldrin revised his original laser hypothesis to a sunlight-reflection explanation, while still noting the brightness was unusual at that distance.

“ALDRIN: "approaching CDH when the Earth came up above the lunar horizon, I observed what appeared to be a fairly bright light source which we tentatively ascribed to a possible laser." / "When putting the monocular on the light source, it appeared as though it was the reflection of the Sun from a relatively smooth body of water such as a lake."”

OCR quality is moderate. The final explanation (sunlight lake reflection) is tentative and noted by Aldrin himself as unusual in its brightness at that distance. No ground confirmation of a laser experiment at that time is cited. Included as an anomalous sighting that was provisionally self-explained by the crew.