Ufo

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Captured this on the all sky camera last night. By far the brightest flying object I've picked up on this camera. Looks like a plane but I'm wondering why it is so bright?

[h0ughy (David)]

Helicopter with a search flood light and then turns it off

[Dennis]

You should really calibrate these monitoring captures with some Dark Frames Peter...

Good catch - did it cross the FOV of any of your subs?

Cheers

Dennis

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

Helicopter with a search flood light and then turns it off

I was thinking it had more of a plane profile.

Originally Posted by Dennis

You should really calibrate these monitoring captures with some Dark Frames Peter...

Good catch - did it cross the FOV of any of your subs?

Cheers

Dennis

Hi Dennis, the AllSky application does do dark subtraction however the camera temperature and exposure duration is not fixed so it is impossible to match the light and dark properly hence the hot pixels. The camera is an original ASI120 I had lying around so it was a cheap project and it does the job.

Looks like I was pointing elsewhere when it flew past so has not appeared in any subs.

[astro744]

You can get historical flight data using the Flightradar24 app but note it is now a subscription model. Not sure which version you need for historical data (probably most expensive sub). There is a free trial period. (I invested in the last full version with add ons and it served me well as a casual enthusiast. I may try the sub version over summer)

Looks like an aircraft as you can see the underbelly anti-collision beacon and the outer lights are spread apart. You could probably work out the altitude if you knew the speed and timing if the lights or the speed of aircraft if you knew the altitude and timing. Not sure why so bright though but headlights could have been on.

Your time stamp and direction would assist you in determining the aircraft using Flightradar24.

[Dennis]

Here is a collection, comprising an ISS pass, an aeroplane trail, the Moon, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter when I was shooting the ISS passing the Milky Way.

It can get quite busy up there.

Cheers

Dennis

[astro744]

That’s cool but why is the ISS trail not continuous? If it is a series of separate exposures then that explains it but then why are the aircraft trail(s) continuous? The green and red wing strobes can be seen at intervals as they should but that would explain a single aircraft.

Perhaps if you have the details of the exposure(s); length and interval between each exposure as it would help explain the timing.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by astro744

That’s cool but why is the ISS trail not continuous? If it is a series of separate exposures then that explains it but then why are the aircraft trail(s) continuous? The green and red wing strobes can be seen at intervals as they should but that would explain a single aircraft.

Perhaps if you have the details of the exposure(s); length and interval between each exposure as it would help explain the timing.

Hopefully Peter won't mind me photo-bombing his post.

Cheers

Dennis

[astro744]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hopefully Peter won't mind me photo-bombing his post.

Cheers

Dennis

Ok. Thanks. This time I can see the aircraft trail also has a gap at the very bottom of frame. This is clearly a multiple exposure perhaps done with an intervalometer. The gap is then time between the end of one exposure and the beginning of the next otherwise the trails would be continuous.