unusual night photo

[Alanwh (Alan)]

I am new to this so still learning

I was out trying to learn about star photos and was taking a number of shot. this appeared in the batch> I did not see anything in the night sky where I was

the info on the shot is exposure 20 sec, iso 1600, at f5.6
any clues as to what it could be?

Alan

[LewisM]

Camera shake/tripod shake. Evident by the erratic sattelite trail. Short duration upset, then longer exposure after settling captured the stars.

Also, running it through astrometry shows the bright focal point is Agena/Hadar

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

The bright object would be Venus wobbling around.
If you set the timer on the camera for 5 seconds, it will give your camera time to settle after you press the button.

[Alanwh (Alan)]

I did a batch of photos and was using a timer that was plugged into the camera this was in the middle of the batch (10 photos) so no touching the camera to shake it ....if it was shake the rest of the stars still look sharp ... I was aiming south so cant be venus it was to my right

Alan

[astroearth (Carl)]

There is no evidence of camera shake as all the other stars are in focus and relatively sharp.

The is another image of a satellite in one of the stacked images. There may be a rouge object that has a light source.

keep up the good work not a bad effort for a first timer

[LewisM]

Seeing that Agena/Hadar/B-Cent is a bright star, it will register on a chip MUCH faster than much fainter stars, that WON'T show as quickly. Hence, if the mounting system is disturbed - however minute - in the early part of exposure it WILL show, whereas the less bright stars will take longer to register, or the registration of movement is not very noticeable. I also suggst the mounting system had started to settle when the satellite image was recorded - again apparent because of the brightness of it.

Considering the light trail is focalised on B Cent, it is definitely light source. I can guarantee B Cent just didn't go wandering arounf that much for a 20 sec exposure...

Please, oh please no one start suggestion UFOs... :ROFL:

[Alanwh (Alan)]

hi lewisM

I have been out again and done some more night shots
you were right it was movement I was able to do something like the original one by moving the camera ....really interesting that only the bright stars did it

thanks for all the info
Alan

[Danny_86 (Danny)]

I think it is camera shake, even if you weren't touching it. It is possible that is could be the wind blowing even your camera strap or the remote shutter, if your tripod isn't sturdy even this can cause the wind to shake the strap & remote shutter.