Trifid + UFO?

[g__day (Matthew)]

Folk

I'm puzzled with what I caught here. Yesterday I stacked 5 * 20 minute shots of M20 last night between 8pm (Sydney time and 9:40pm) just to kick start my rig as I've done no imaging in 8 months and this was a shaken down test.

Seeing was only fair at best - so please ignore the quality of the Trifid and the very limited post processing I did.

What did surprise me was the shape slowly moving up the screen. That shot is 100 minutes combined - and in that time something moved about 3 arc minutes across the shot (the frame scale is 30 arc minutes long by 20 arc minutes wide - full moon just covers the frame lengthwise) and had a slightly red colour - see the red line near the middle slightly left and slopping up and away from the Trifid.

Tracking was quite reasonable - say +/- 1 arc second all night - so am I most likely seeing a very faint asteroid or a nearly geosynchronous satellite?

Interested what you folk reckon!

Matthew

[astroron (Ron)]

Interesting, could be iether
You have something at more or less straight down on the edge of the image

[DavidU (Dave)]

It looks like a Cosmic ray during the red sub.

[g__day (Matthew)]

I haven't seen too many cosmic rays that last 6,000 seconds and have constant illumination!

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

NASA has found a way to tamper with your image. They added a little red arrow to point out where a magnitude 30 quasar is located

[rat156]

Hi Matthew,

Interesting colour.
What camera is this taken with?
Does the object appear in all frames (1/5th as long) or only one?

Cheers
Stuart

[g__day (Matthew)]

Stuart

Maybe Deep SkyStacker (or I) added the colour accidental?

Camera is Canon 400D

Object was in all frames - 1/5 as long in each.

Matthew

[DavidTrap (David)]

Slow moving lantern launched from the sunshine coast a week or two ago? (See UFO thread in Chat section)

DT

[davewaldo]

Hi Mathew, I think I've captured the same object.

I'll post an image soon.

David.

[davewaldo]

Well here it is... Whatever we have captured seems to be the same object on the same trajectory....

The first image shows an overlay of your image on top of mine. The red line is from your image the white from mine.

The second image is my image (cropped).

I thought nothing of it, a assume its an asteroid or satellite but I know nothing about these things...

Anyone know?

Dave.

EDIT: My image contains about 35mins of exposure

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by davewaldo

Well here it is... Whatever we have captured seems to be the same object on the same trajectory....

The first image shows an overlay of your image on top of mine. The red line is from your image the white from mine.

The second image is my image (cropped).

I thought nothing of it, a assume its an asteroid or satellite but I know nothing about these things...

Anyone know?

Dave.

If you have a look at the two trails, you can see they're both made up of a series of brighter and darker blobs that appear to be one streak.

That object is rotating.

It's probably a satellite.

[davewaldo]

I think the reason it looks like blobs is because these images are a stack of several images. the the thin bits or gaps in the line are moments between exposures and/or effects of seeing. Because the object is moving through the frame is doesn't benefit from the stacking instead each piece of the line represents a single sub/frame.

Although I'm happy to be corrected.

[richardo (Rich)]

Hi Matthew,
this is extended minor planet 700 Auravictrix coming in at mag 13.6.

There are literally heaps of these little suckers cruising around.

When you're in doubt next time, download the latest extended minor planet database to your planetarium.
I use The Sky 6.

Rich

[davewaldo]

Nice work Rich! Thanks mate.

[richardo (Rich)]

No probs Dave!

Rich

[davewaldo]

Off topic I'm sorry, but how do I add the minor planet data base to stary night pro 6? I've searched all over the web and there seems to be little mention of it...

Any help would be appreciated.

Dave.

[mexhunter (César)]

Hi to all:
From beginning remembered a virus intruder, who attacked the Enterprise, in those early chapters of Star Trek.
A very Trifid virus.
Greetings
Cesar

[richardo (Rich)]

Dave, I'm not real sure with Starry night pro, I think I used it like about ten years ago in its early days, but am pretty sure there is an 'update' data- comets/satelites/minor planets facility within the actual program. Have a look around for something like download data bases. You'll need to be online, then hit the appropriate button to download.

However, I'm only going on my memory... pretty vague.. really

But hope this helps.
Rich

Originally Posted by davewaldo

Off topic I'm sorry, but how do I add the minor planet data base to stary night pro 6? I've searched all over the web and there seems to be little mention of it...

Any help would be appreciated.

Dave.

[g__day (Matthew)]

I'm impressed! I use The Sky6 - Professional Edition - and zoomed in on the area - no minor planetoid there - must update my databases as you suggest!

Thanks,

Matthew

[renormalised (Carl)]

I hadn't checked Starry Night, myself. Should've...hmmm asteroid, still probably rotating