I was photographing (or attempting to photograph!) comet Lovejoy last night. Anyone got any idea what the dark doodad in my 3 moonlight-affected subs was? Not seen anything like it in subs before, got me stumped. Is it real or what? It appears to have been thereabouts for at least the 10-min period shooting period. Not a thin bit of dark cloud because it appears to move backwards & forwards, apart from the time and the sharp edges. Please don't tell me my camera's stuffing up, eek... http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/DarkdoodadinLovejoyfieldsm.jpg
Top-left is unadjusted first frame (each Canon 400D @ 55mm, 2 min, ISO 1600, F/4.5). Others are big contrast adjustments to the three frames. To process the comet shot I selectively brightened the tongue of black in each frame to match the adjoining sky, before stacking. I'm plumping on the side of some weird sort of artefact.
Thanks guys. Hair sounds good, or something thin crawling over the lens or hanging over the lens & moving. Checked inside the camera - bad mistake to shine a bright torch beam in there, wish I hadn't, LOL. Nothing but a big family of dust bunnies, ouch! Will see how it shoots tonight if the sky is clear, and track it down further if necessary.
Most likely a hair quite close to the detector - it looks like a smudge I had on a series of images from a mountaineering trip, but that was a dark fuzzy smudge caused by a spot of gunk on the detector of the camera. Be gentle when cleaning it!
BTW, don't let the conspiracy theorists get a hold of your pics, they'll think there's a big dark comet following Lovejoy ...
Most likely a hair quite close to the detector - it looks like a smudge I had on a series of images from a mountaineering trip, but that was a dark fuzzy smudge caused by a spot of gunk on the detector of the camera. Be gentle when cleaning it!
BTW, don't let the conspiracy theorists get a hold of your pics, they'll think there's a big dark comet following Lovejoy ...
Thanks Andy - I don't intend to touch the inside of the camera myself but I might get it professionally cleaned if I get an opportunity. Long overdue considering the rough life it's had.
LOL, "The Black Comet of Doom", I can see it now! If it's going to wipe us out it had better get a hurry up, the Mayan calendar's ending soon!
Will see how it shoots tonight if the sky is clear, and track it down further if necessary.
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