Interesting object

[Jaybee76]

Hello everybody!

What a fantastic site this is!!

I am very new to astronomy, and am currently researching my first telescope. I am probably going to get an Orion Skyquest XT10.

This is not why I am posting, however...

Last night I was taking a few long exposure shots with my Nikon D90 when I inadvertantly captured something interesting.

I was aiming at M42, but the clouds were rolling in from the east. As Orion disappeared behind the clouds, the only clear sky left was to the West, so I decided to take a few shots of what I believe is Jupiter (yes, I am green).

When I put the photos on my computer I noticed an object tracking in front of the planet. Can someone identify what it may be? Is it a satellite?

I took 6 x 6 second exposures, with a 6'ish second gap in between.

I will attempt to upload the Jpegs that I have, which have had the contrast and brightness altered for clarity. I would love for someone who knows how to work with .NEF images to make the most of these photos, as I know very little about photo manipulation.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs248.snc6/179679_147386588648428_100001312627 951_223337_927909_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1395.snc4/164777_147386508648436_100001312627 951_223335_5182539_n.jpg

I have only included the first and sixth photos, although the object tracks evenly throughout all six... These two photos are taken approximately 1 minute apart.

Is anyone able to enlighten this newbie?

Kind regards,

Jason

[jjjnettie]

Hi Jason,
Welcome to IIS!
It was a satellite you captured.
I highly recommend you register with http://www.heavens-above.com/
It's a fantastic resource. You'll be able to keep track of when and where satellites, the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope pass over in your particular location. Also you can find out when to expect Iridium Flares too.

[astroron]

What you probably have is a couple of the Jupiter moons close by and are streaked with the motion across the sky
Cheers

[[1ponders]]

yep I'd go with a satellite as well. Ron, you can see a couple of jupiters moons to the 2 oclock and 8 oclock position right in close to Jupiter. :thumbsup:



Edit: Actually re-looking at it, it could be an asteroid. Can you give the times of the capture?

[Jaybee76]

Thanks folks!

[astroron]

JJ I see no Satellite trails in my picture only extensions of Jupiter:shrug: where are the satellite Trails
If it was a satellite it would not be in the image for 6 minutes :question:
Cheers

[astroron]

Where is the Satellite or asteroid ?
Cheers

[Jaybee76]

The first image was taken at 22:19, and the second (actually the sixth) was taken at 22:21. (19/01/2011)

Would you like me to upload the other 4 photos?

Thank you all for your interest

[Liz]

I cant see any satellites either?? Am I going blind?

[Osirisra]

prob a high orbit sat...

You could probarly even find which one it was with an app like Orbitron (free)

[[1ponders]]

so over two minutes then Jupiter would have moved half a degree. It could be a geostationary satellite except it wouldn't be training at all. What FL was the lens? At that position in the sky anything longer than about 100mm would show trailing at 6 sec.

[Jaybee76]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs790.ash1/168036_147403411980079_100001312627 951_223370_2044427_n.jpg

Unfortunately I have to go to work soon. Thank you all for your time on this. :)

[Jaybee76]

This was taken at a focal length of 200mm, f/5.6...

[astroron]

To me it just looks like the drift in your photo of a star. there is a 9,2 star in a similar position.
Seems too big for an asteroid?
It is drifting in the same direction as the other stars in your pic .
and a Satellite would not be that big either?
Cheers

[mithrandir]

I'm going with a satellite.

NOAA 16 passed close to Jupiter - 1 deg away - at about 22:14 (Melbourne time) last night. How close they were and at what time depends on your exact location.

The ISS pass was later - around 22:29 - and further from Jupiter.

Grab the latest version of Stellarium, put in your location as accurately as you can [F6] button, enable the "Satellites" plugin and restart.

[F3] type Jupiter <enter>

[F5] change the display date and time to when you took the photos.

You should see your satellite. This is what I got.

[astroron]

If it was a satalite wouldn't the track be much bigger seeing he took the pictures One Minute apart :question:
As in my post before this it would be a Big Satellite:shrug:
Cheers

[Rob_K]

Interesting object. So this is a tripod shot at 200mm, 2 min from first to last?

The apparent movement of the object is 36 arcminutes over that time. Given that 2 minutes is an approximation, this would be roughly 1 degree in 4 minutes. That is the magic apparent 'movement' for a geosynchronous satellite, against the stellar background - 360 deg in 24 hr. The celestial meridian goes just about right through Jupiter's position last night - fertile hunting grounds for geosynchronous satellites. It is definitely not an ordinary orbiting satellite.

But there are a couple of issues. Brightness - this is a very bright object, much brighter than a mag 4.9 star in the field. Maybe mag 2 or 3? Correct me someone if I'm wrong, but I don't think our GSSs get anywhere near that bright, viewed from Earth.??

And why does it appear to trail? A GSS will appear as a spot while the stars trail in fixed tripod shots. Your star trails are typical for a 6-sec shot at 200mm - I find trailing just becomes noticeable at about 5 sec. GSSs are in very high orbits - you would never get anything other than a spot no matter what shape they are. Interesting that your object is a tear-drop shape in each sub AND angled to the line of apparent movement, while the star trails are normal.

Putting my neck out, but I reckon it's an object like a plane or airship in geosynchronous (or near) orbit within our atmosphere. I know Lockheed has been working with an airship for insertion at 70,000 feet in a geosynchronous orbit. Hydrogen powered planes can continuously monitor single locations from stratospheric heights...:shrug:

Will expect a knock at the door any minute, eeek... :lol:

Cheers -

[astroron]

Thanks for your post Rob:thanx:
I just revisited the pictures , Now I see the whole picture :rolleyes:
I now admit I don't know what it is :shrug:
Cheers

[Rob_K]

Yep, me too Ron. But I did find this on geosynchronous satellites:

"Typically the satellite will be in the mag. +11 to +14 range (or dimmer), but brightening by several magnitudes when the geometry is favourable (around mag. +5 to +6 is not untypical). One satellite is reported to have briefly been visible to the naked eye at mag. +3 !"
http://www.satobs.org/geosats.html

Jason's object is at least that bright. Brightest I've photographed would be about mag 7 or 8, from memory, always a dot - I mean, they're about 35,000 km away! So the shape of Jason's object & its orientation worries me, given that his focus appears to be absolutely spot on.

Oh well, one of life's little mysteries... :)

Cheers -

[[1ponders]]

There are a few other things to consider as well. The quality of the lens, could the 'tail' on the unknown be a lens artifact/aberration?

[Jaybee76]

Thanks all. Very insightful and educational. I have put all six photos here, if anyone should be interested --> http://www.mypicx.com/01202011/Interesting_Object_Near_Jupiter/

Quick recap... Nikon D90, tripod mount. 200mm focal length f/5.6. 6 second exposures. Photos taken 19/01/11 at (approx) 1st - 22:19:40, 2nd - 22:19:55, 3rd - 22:20:15, 4th - 22:20:30, 5th - 22:20:50, 6th - 22:21:05.

My location is:

Latitude 37° 43' 55" S Longitude 144° 45' 47" E
These particular photos have had the brightness and contrast altered.

Does anyone know if the RAW/NEF images I have will hold any more useful detail?

Cheers :)

[mithrandir]

If it is a satellite the timing is critical. Can you verify the camera's clock against a really accurate clock, preferably set by NTP. Don't change the clock without recording the offset first.

Andrew (timekeeping fanatic)

[Jaybee76]

My DSLR is 2 min 11 sec BEHIND NTP

[mithrandir]

Thanks Jason. The camera being 00:02:11 slow puts the time of the first pic at 22:21:51

There are several satellites that passed through that piece of sky at about 22:22 but according to CalSKY the only ones traveling roughly west to east were Milstar 3, EGP, AMC 16 Cn Rocket, Falcon 9 Rocket, and Globalstar 68.

None of them would be bright, and AMC 16 Cn Rocket seems to be the best fit.

Looks like it remains a mystery.

Andrew

[Rob_K]

Yeah, definitely Paul - especially from an extraneous fixed light source where it would maintain position as the stars track through. No expert on these artefacts, although I've been fooled a couple of times before! :rolleyes: :lol:

Could be just coincidence that it appears so close to the meridian where GSSs abound.

Cheers -

[Jaybee76]

You guys are awesome. Thank you all!

[Astroman]

I wonder if there were any weather balloons around at the time, with the reflector picking up light from somewhere... Interesting pick up though, UFO fanatics would have a field day
:)

[Jaybee76]

Haha. I was hoping to have captured something a little more interesting than a satellite; perhaps an asteroid... but an Unidentified Flying Weather Balloon would certainly give the Ufologists some ammo :D. I have no doubt my find is relatively innocuous, but a tear-drop shaped craft on its way back to Alpha Centauri would be a great story! HEHE. Cheers Astroman!

[renormalised]

Or, we could start playing the "Twilight Zone" theme....maybe it was a..........??? :)

Just looking at the pics, it's hard to tell what it is.

[ikon]

Woah cool thread!
At first It looked like its movement was on a curved trajectory, so I got all excited about the hydrogen lockheed martin comment, but I did this up using all the images. Probably a satellite!

http://111.118.169.81/~megamoto/together.jpg

Large image. (http://111.118.169.81/%7Emegamoto/together_large.jpg)

[Jaybee76]

Hey, good work Marty!

Cheers.

[Jaybee76]

As Paul has pointed out, I am coming to think it must simply be an artifact.

Despite having ever only seen 'uniform' artifacts, in that under magnification they appear as a symmetrical block of pixels, possibly always of the same colour, the direction of travel appears to be parallel to the tracking of the stars. The intense light from Jupiter must have caused the 'object', and it's movement I daresay, would be inversely related to Jupiters' tracking across the sky, simply accentuated.

Thanks to Marty's work, I can now see the trajectory. It appears that the object is not exactly oriented towards its direction of travel, but is slightly off-axis. This would not happen with a real-life object?

Thats all I've got...

[Tommy Camp]

Pretty interesting stuff, and great discussion. I like how this really got the brains turning over.

[jimmywrangles]

Planet Nibiru????:eyepop:

OK, so I've got no idea but great thread people.:thumbsup: