Any ideas what this is?

[rat156]

Hi All,

Whilst taking pics of the Helix nebula last night something strange happened.

One of the subs has a striking "feature"

I'm unsure as to what it could be, it seems too small to be a plane, but too large to be a satellite. Anyway according to heavens above no major pieces of space hardware should have traveled through the frame.

Open to all suggestions.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z247/rat156/HelixHa.jpg

Cheers
Stuart

[AlexN]

too small to be a plane, the enterprise would have been doing warp 9, too fast to leave a visible streak in the image, satellite maybe...

Also maybe a meteor... Hard to say...

Looks like an awesome helix shot though!

[cookie8]

Multiple parallel lines can't be a meteor. Space Shuttle was launched FRiday night Florida time.... possibly too early for Heavens-Above.

[Ric]

Hi Stuart, possibly a high altitude plane.

I have the same lines in a image of NGC6744 as well as the tail section of the plane. They look very similar.

Cheers

[Garyh]

Maybe like Ric mentions, a small jet aircraft at high altitude?
Anyway thats a cracker Helix sub anyway!
cheers

[rat156]

Here's what a jet looks like on an ST-7 with and ED80.

[RB]

It's a 'tumbling' satellite Stuart.
If you magnify the image in PS and boost the levels and sharpen you will pickup slight twists in the trail.

[RB]

Here's what I mean.

[firstlight]

I was just about to post pretty much the same opinion, but I see that Reocket Boy beat me to it... you can see the twist in the original image. I suppose that there is no chance that it might be an ion trail from a meteor, the initial flash would overpower any after image?

Tony

[rat156]

Thanks RB,

I thought it should be, but it's really big then. Most satellites I have seen come up as point trails, no bigger than stars. I tried to image the ISS with a DMK at native focal length and I reckon that the two objects are in the same ball park sizewise. The DMK gives a magnification factor of 357 (FL/Pixel size), whereas the SBig gives one of 220, I have a focal reducer at 0.75 for the deep sky shots.

Now without checking the actual frames, these two seem to be of similar size on screen, which would make this about 2/3 the size of the ISS, I'll measure the ISS frames tonight when I get home.

Of course we cannot adjust for orbit size, but I think the ISS is in quite a low orbit??

Beam me up Scotty, I think!

Cheers
Stuart

[jase]

Nothing a little data rejection can't remove.:) Make sure you come back and post your Helix when done. Should be a pearler.

[rat156]

Data rejection results look good Jase. Need some new darks for the light frames. Looks like tonight might be a good night for taking dark frames.

I've only got Ha and OIII, but the one SII frame I've got has stuff all in it, so I might try Ha, sG, OIII type processing.

Still, it won't be as good as yours, but I don't have a 24" RCOS either.

Cheers
Stuart

[jase]

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. The 24" RCOS simply provides image scale. You've got some excellent looking Ha data to work with. Actually, I'm more interested in how you'll manage the emission lines. As you've realised, it takes some work to extract the SII data on this target as its not exactly strong. I ended up blending some Ha data into the SII (approx 20%). Not ideal for the narrowband purist, but when all you're trying to do is create something aesthetic, you'll probably go to great lengths to make it happen otherwise you'll end up with a green helix if your pallette is SHO.

[jase]

Also, Stuart, I know you're a user of CCDStack (as are a few others on this forum). While I don't use CCDStack (yet), I sat in on a workshop hosted by Stan Moore at AIC. He's developing a new version of CCDStack which is marked as being called CCDStack Unlimited. It will apparently address the memory problems users encounter when utilising large stacks and large files. It will be a true x64 build, not thunked calls. This is based on other work he's been doing on lucky imaging (stacking mega data) - which he also mentioned. More info can be found here - http://www.stanmooreastro.com/IntensifiedAstronomicalImaging.htm

CCDStack Unlimited (if it keeps this name) is expected early next year. No firm dates were provided.

[Bassnut]

(Sorry for hijacking yr thread Stuart :P)

Jase, CCD stack sorely needs a CCD inspector-like-stacking-plugin too, and stacking from HD (alah IP), that would solve the RAM prob.

[gregbradley]

CCDstack is great but the memory requirements make it very slow and awkward to use. So an unlimited one would be great.

The image trail; could it be space debris reentering?

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Almost certainly an aircraft. Not that I know much about such things....

[rat156]

You flying around above my place just to stuff up my photo's Peter?

Cheers
Stuart

[rat156]

Just had a look at the poll results, it's neck and neck between a plane and the USS Enterprize, which is strange, because I thought that it was an aircraft carrier. However according to the all knowing Wikipedia, their both USS Enterprise, go figure, the Yanks finally spell something with an "s" that's supposed to have one in it! I'll fix the spelling in the poll if I can...

Cheers
Stuart

[Bassnut]

Enterprize???, isnt that Enterprise?, yanky punk :mad2:.

This is serious. Given such a huge voting sample, the polling result is disturbing indeed.

[firstlight]

Not only does Enterprise contain an "s" but the USS Enterprise (the space craft) never went into space. The Enterprise first flew attached to a carrier aircraft in 1977, followed by 4 more unmanned test flights, then 3 manned. Finally 5 free flights were made before being attached to an external tank and boosters for vibration tests. It was then partially dismantled and parts used in the fleet. After Challenger it was considered as a replacement but the decision was made to use spare parts from Discovery and Atlantis to construct Endeavor.

Is this just TOO geeky:eyepop:

[Inmykombi]

I agree with RB and Firstlight.

Its a tumbling Sattelite.
Definate twists in the trails give it away.
Its hard to say how big it was, but it may have had some large solar panels to give it a twisting appearance.

Love the Helix by the way....just awesome....

Geoffro

[jase]

Huh? Such a plug-in already exists Fred, its called CCDIS/P - here's the demo - http://www.ccdware.com/products/ccdinspector/CCDISdemo/CCDISdemo.html

I have to say, that when it comes to image registration, MaximDL 5.0 does an incredible job. It will evaluate star roundness, FWHM etc that you define to discard poor quality subs. When it comes to registration, it now has the ability to do a plate solve on each sub for precision alignment. I don't know if I'd use such a feature as regular star matching or manual two star matching is usually sufficient. I'm still a Registar advocate for sub registration.

[Bassnut]

Thats what I mean Jase, ive used that plug in, its great. That stacking function should be native to CCD stack tho, without needing to buy CCD inspector.

Yes, MaximDL is also very good, but id rather use just one app, not jump to others for specific features.

[acropolite]

I'm with the tumbling theory, either a satellite piece of space junk. The twists are clear even in the original.

[rat156]

Hey Fred,

You can buy CCDIS/P as a stand alone plugin now. It's US$90, so I might wait for the peso to be revalued again.

Cheers
Stuart

[gregbradley]

What? Devalued downward? hehe

Don't hold your breath.

Greg.