[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Hello all,

Like every other nerd with a camera I was out last night snapping Lemmon when I thought I would have a go at Crux. This is a photo of Beta Crucis and the Jewel Box - and something I can't understand.

The intricacy of its pattern suggests repeated turning and then a wide loop or maybe this happened first. I didn't see this - although it was probably bright enough to see - because I had gone inside to get a torch.

I immediately took another shot under same conditions 3 minutes later - it was nowhere to be seen.

The area I was shooting from was dark - a farm environment, no street lights, no fireflies, nothing obvious to add to this to explain the result.

Could this be a satellite launch/deployment gone wrong?

Any suggestions?

Details are:

Picture taken at approx 12:59am EDT 5/4/13

Lens: AF-S DX VR Nikkor 55-300mm 4.5-5.6G ED

Camera: Nikon D40 on tripod

Exposure: 70.0 S at 220mm F5.6 ISO 3200 with inbuilt noise reduction on.


Richard