Interesting object - Page 2

Jaybee76 (Jason) · #21 20-01-2011, 11:12 PM

Thanks all. Very insightful and educational. I have put all six photos here, if anyone should be interested --> http://www.mypicx.com/01202011/Inter..._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 (Andrew) · #22 20-01-2011, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaybee76

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

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 (Jason) · #23 20-01-2011, 11:38 PM

My DSLR is 2 min 11 sec BEHIND NTP

mithrandir (Andrew) · #24 21-01-2011, 12:50 AM

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 · #25 21-01-2011, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [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?

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!

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

Cheers -

Jaybee76 (Jason) · #26 21-01-2011, 06:29 PM

You guys are awesome. Thank you all!

Astroman (Andrew Wall) · #27 21-01-2011, 06:56 PM

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 (Jason) · #28 21-01-2011, 07:11 PM

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

. 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 (Carl) · #29 23-01-2011, 01:26 AM

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 (Marty) · #30 28-01-2011, 10:20 AM

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.

Jaybee76 (Jason) · #31 28-01-2011, 07:07 PM

Hey, good work Marty!

Cheers.

Jaybee76 (Jason) · #32 29-01-2011, 07:40 PM

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 · #33 14-03-2011, 01:22 PM

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

jimmywrangles (James) · #34 23-03-2011, 11:34 AM

Planet Nibiru????

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