Can someone help me identify this cosmic structure in this photo?

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: f95toli
Exacly, a lens flare is what I had in mind (I just couldn't remember the english term).

Anyway, even with a digital SLR (I own a 350D) taking photos of the sky is difficult du to noise.
Even with high quality cameras you have problems with noise when using long exposure times (30 min-1 hour is not unusual for astronomi photos), I think it is the D70 which has problems with the top left corner of the photo becoming somewhat green is you use really long exposure times, it is apparantly caused by the heat from the battery.

There are ways around this that I guess you could use even with a powershot: "stacking" short exposures, subtracting another picture taken with the lens cap on etc.

Actually due to saturation, digitals are much better for astronomy than film. You just have to keep them cool is all

Noise can be cancelled almost perfectly in post production too.

 

[silverpig]

It's probably just a lens or atmospheric effect. Look at the spot halfway between the bottom right corner of your largest zoom window and the bottom edge of the image. Looks like another one there. Of course if you had some coordinates I could use the observatory I have access to and take a picture that might be better... Or I could be lazy and just look those coordinates up

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: Gibsons
My guess is a meteor.

okay, nevermind but still pretty cool...nice shot

 

[arcas]

It's the result of chromatic abberation. Basically it means that your camera's lens doesn't quite focus all visible wavelenths of light to the same spot so you'll see blue fringes around brighter stars and planets. I'm guessing the 'tail' is the result of internal reflections within your camera's lens housing. There appear to be 2 more tail-like structures near the bottom center and bottom left of the image.

You didn't tell us which direction you were facing when you took the picture but I'll hazard a guess that the object itself is Uranus. I believe 'bright' star near the right edge of the image at the same height as the object in question is the star Sadalmelik (RA 22:05:47, Dec -0:19:11).

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: arcas
It's the result of chromatic abberation. Basically it means that your camera's lens doesn't quite focus all visible wavelenths of light to the same spot so you'll see blue fringes around brighter stars and planets. I'm guessing the 'tail' is the result of internal reflections within your camera's lens housing. There appear to be 2 more tail-like structures near the bottom center and bottom left of the image.

You didn't tell us which direction you were facing when you took the picture but I'll hazard a guess that the object itself is Uranus. I believe 'bright' star near the right edge of the image at the same height as the object in question is the star Sadalmelik (RA 22:05:47, Dec -0:19:11).

I just fired up my program and I think you're correct. See my annotated pic: http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/Armitage/night_sky2434_annotated.jpg

To the OP - can you post the original pic without the text & zoomed in boxes?

 

[piddlefoot]

ITS ALF !

 

[Eeezee]

It could be a lot of things

It could even be an artifact created by the camera

The resolution on your camera isn't particularly great, so I suspect it's just something in orbit around earth. Space junk, satellite, whatever you'd like

 

[Mojoed]

Jupiter and venus were easily visible with binoculars on a somewhat close proximity to the moon on the night of your photo. Was the moon cropped out of the picture or covered by the enlargement?

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Mojoed
Jupiter and venus were easily visible with binoculars on a somewhat close proximity to the moon on the night of your photo. Was the moon cropped out of the picture or covered by the enlargement?

Jupiter & Venus are easily naked eye visible - the brightest & earliest stars in the sky right now. I sow them Sunday night. But the key is early - the set time for Jupiter and Venus was about 21:00 for that date & location, while the OP said it was about 23:30. They are also very low on the horizon, while the OP said his shot was roughly straight up. And the moon was not visible that night.

 

[Cruise51]

I'm no expert on the topic but i'd think there are 3 possibillities...
1. it's a astronomical body
2. it's something in the atmosphere
3. it's something else. ie lens flare.

 

[JEDIYoda]

actually it sort of looks like Superman entering the atmosphere at super speed!!

 

[IncredibleHutch]

There are a lot of people that mention the idea of a meteor... and many others saying it would streak. Well, if I may... it's not so simple as to dismiss the idea of a meteor. We could take a 15sec exposure of your house's shadow on the ground quite clearly and you would have next to zero visible motion blur effect unless you were moving your hand as you took the picture. If it was a metoer... and I'm not suggesting it is... it very well may be so far out there that even on a tripod with no movement at the camera's end... you still wouldn't see any blur because the meteor could be moving entirely too slow for 15secs to be worth noticeing any movement.

If the object is still there I would suggest viewing it with a telescope to verify the picture shows what you see within the telescope.


EDIT:

haha, ok... so not a meteor... as pointed out below... but I tend to mix the whole comet and meteor things up... and I'm sure others do as well. It seems it was meant to say comet because if they were seriously trying to say meteor... then it sounds more like a very close health hazard >.> And if you look at the picture it's pretty clear it's pretty far out there... especially considering the zoom effect the OP tried to do.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: IncredibleHutch
There are a lot of people that mention the idea of a meteor... and many others saying it would streak. Well, if I may... it's not so simple as to dismiss the idea of a meteor. We could take a 15sec exposure of your house's shadow on the ground quite clearly and you would have next to zero visible motion blur effect unless you were moving your hand as you took the picture. If it was a metoer... and I'm not suggesting it is... it very well may be so far out there that even on a tripod with no movement at the camera's end... you still wouldn't see any blur because the meteor could be moving entirely too slow for 15secs to be worth noticeing any movement.

If the object is still there I would suggest viewing it with a telescope to verify the picture shows what you see within the telescope.

You see a meteor because it is burning up in the atmosphere - so by definition, it is very close and moving very fast. In fact the minimum speed that anything from deep space can hit the earth with is equal to earth's escape velocity - 11.2 Km/second. The only way it wouldn't streak would be if it was coming straight at you - possible, but very unlikely.

 

[surreal1221]

Could possibility be a satellite. Would be your best bet honestly. I see them all the time up in NRN Wisconsin.

 

[Brentx]

Originally posted by: surreal1221
Could possibility be a satellite. Would be your best bet honestly. I see them all the time up in NRN Wisconsin.

I live In WI. You go out in the country here on a clear night and it is amazing what you can see with your eyes. I saw the ISS a couple of times. That was really cool as it brushes accross the horizon.

Back on topic... I have a feeling that is some type of artifact caused by light bouncing around in the lens. That would be my best bet.

 

[irwincur]

Probably a bright planet being skewed by a lens that is not made for this type of imaging. Looks like a lens anomoly.

 

[gbuskirk]

I concur with others who have expressed the opinion that it is an artifact of your image processing filters which have smeared the light between two close points, as evidenced by other similar smears in the photo.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: IncredibleHutch
There are a lot of people that mention the idea of a meteor... and many others saying it would streak. Well, if I may... it's not so simple as to dismiss the idea of a meteor. We could take a 15sec exposure of your house's shadow on the ground quite clearly and you would have next to zero visible motion blur effect unless you were moving your hand as you took the picture. If it was a metoer... and I'm not suggesting it is... it very well may be so far out there that even on a tripod with no movement at the camera's end... you still wouldn't see any blur because the meteor could be moving entirely too slow for 15secs to be worth noticeing any movement.

If the object is still there I would suggest viewing it with a telescope to verify the picture shows what you see within the telescope.

You see a meteor because it is burning up in the atmosphere - so by definition, it is very close and moving very fast. In fact the minimum speed that anything from deep space can hit the earth with is equal to earth's escape velocity - 11.2 Km/second. The only way it wouldn't streak would be if it was coming straight at you - possible, but very unlikely.

I trust your fact about earth's escape velocity, but I haven't run into that before... Why is that the minimum speed it can strike earth? I'm about --->||<---- close to that aha moment when I realize why... but my mind still can't quite come to grips with it.
I thought about it from a perspective of a stationary earth without a moon... then it was fairly obvious. But, I can't get it out of my head that there aren't possible paths where the effect of the moon's gravity would effect the velocity enough so that it could be slightly below escape velocity.

 

[DrPizza]

Hmmmm... if it was a satellite,
wouldn't the brightness be the same across the "smear"? from one end to the other?

 

[BBock7271]

 

[Jeff7]

What was the magnification on the telescope?

Either way, I think that a satellite moving across a telescope's viewing range would leave little more than a streak, unless it's very far out, like Moon-distances.

My guess, nebula, far off galaxy or pair of galaxies, or maybe a binary star system with dust. It's fairly bright though, so I think it's local to this galaxy, probably a star....or a star with a galaxy or nebula in the background.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: IncredibleHutch
There are a lot of people that mention the idea of a meteor... and many others saying it would streak. Well, if I may... it's not so simple as to dismiss the idea of a meteor. We could take a 15sec exposure of your house's shadow on the ground quite clearly and you would have next to zero visible motion blur effect unless you were moving your hand as you took the picture. If it was a metoer... and I'm not suggesting it is... it very well may be so far out there that even on a tripod with no movement at the camera's end... you still wouldn't see any blur because the meteor could be moving entirely too slow for 15secs to be worth noticeing any movement.

If the object is still there I would suggest viewing it with a telescope to verify the picture shows what you see within the telescope.

You see a meteor because it is burning up in the atmosphere - so by definition, it is very close and moving very fast. In fact the minimum speed that anything from deep space can hit the earth with is equal to earth's escape velocity - 11.2 Km/second. The only way it wouldn't streak would be if it was coming straight at you - possible, but very unlikely.

I trust your fact about earth's escape velocity, but I haven't run into that before... Why is that the minimum speed it can strike earth? I'm about --->||<---- close to that aha moment when I realize why... but my mind still can't quite come to grips with it.
I thought about it from a perspective of a stationary earth without a moon... then it was fairly obvious. But, I can't get it out of my head that there aren't possible paths where the effect of the moon's gravity would effect the velocity enough so that it could be slightly below escape velocity.

It's just conservation of energy. Escape velocity is the velocity an object would have to have at the surface of the earth (all kinetic energy) to have zero residual velocity at an infinite distance from the primary object (all potential energy). So if the object were to fall back to earth from that distance, all of the potential energy would be converted back to kinetic energy, just like throwing a ball straight up in a vacuum.

I hadn't really thought about the moon though ... I suppose you would have to figure out the escape velocity of the earth/moon system. The equation is Vesc = sqrt(2*G*M/R) where M is the mass of the primary and R is the radius at which you are calculating the escape velocity from. So, if you were sufficiently far away you could consider the mass ofthe earth and moon together. But as you suggest, in the end-game the position of the moon relative to the approach trajectory would have some effect on the impact velocity - basically a gravitational slingshot manuever.

 

[VictorLazlo]

Other stars in the picture look the same way. I think it's just your camera getting creative.

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Hmmmm... if it was a satellite,
wouldn't the brightness be the same across the "smear"? from one end to the other?

on nights out with my telescope, ive seen flashings "things". one would flicker dimly twice, once brighter, then once very bright, then disappear. a few degrees later, it would reappear and repeat. i watched this cycle 3 (only took about ~8secs each cycle) times before i counldnt see it anymore. it was moving towards the north through the handle of the big dipper around 930pm.

it was too fast moving and bright to be an asteroid. never formed a tail and the pattern made me rule out a meteor. must have been debris, or a sattelite spinning and catching light just right. may be(not the same thing i saw exactly) what the op photographed.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Hmmmm... if it was a satellite,
wouldn't the brightness be the same across the "smear"? from one end to the other?

on nights out with my telescope, ive seen flashings "things". one would flicker dimly twice, once brighter, then once very bright, then disappear. a few degrees later, it would reappear and repeat. i watched this cycle 3 (only took about ~8secs each cycle) times before i counldnt see it anymore. it was moving towards the north through the handle of the big dipper around 930pm.

it was too fast moving and bright to be an asteroid. never formed a tail and the pattern made me rule out a meteor. must have been debris, or a sattelite spinning and catching light just right. may be(not the same thing i saw exactly) what the op photographed.

Yep, it was a satellite. Almost certainly a piece of debris actually. Unless it is stabilized in some manner it will tumble, resulting in the flashing you saw. Probably an old rocket body.

But again, what the OP saw was NOT a satellite. It was to late at night (23:30) for anything he could see to be sunlit, which is a prerequisite for seeing a satellite optically. You will only see satellites within 1-2 hours of sunset & sunrise, unless you have enough power to see geosyncs and other higher orbits.