Night Sky Photo Mystery

[480sparky]

Physically impossible to be a star. If it was, it would be an arc parallel to all the others. It's most likely a satellite.

 

[AlanKlein]

Physically impossible to be a star. If it was, it would be an arc parallel to all the others. It's most likely a satellite.

Why do the ends of the line bend in the same direction?

 

[480sparky]

Because the earth is rotating.

 

[wfooshee]

Because the earth is rotating.

The line he's referring to goes across the image, and is not something fixed in the sky. If the line is curved because of the Earth's rotation, then it's a very bright object just shy of geosynchronous orbit, to leave a streak that much longer than the stars left.

Whatever it was, it appeared in a single frame, most likely a meteor. As for the slight curvature of its path, barrel distortion in the lens?

 

[RacePhoto]

Yeah, I've only done that on this ONE situation. A tracking mount for the camera would have done the same thing, and it would have been a matter of seconds to stack the frames and set the layer blend, but I have no such device.

I just looked at the tracking mounts. Pretty neat. I haven't looked at prices, but I see there are a number that will work (if properly aligned with the North Star) Maybe after I win the lottery.

But that straight line isn't a star, is it?

Something that doesn't arc like a star. I have been working and I haven't gotten any answer on a astronomy site. I kind of like the polar synchronized weather satellite. But why haven't I caught one before? It took 1 1/2 hours (roughly) to travel that path, opposing the natural star movement.

Just in case it's not clearly explained, that is not a single frame event. It's a dot of light, that took the whole sequence to make that trail. If someone looks at one image, it's just a dot, like a star. Not an airplane or, meteorite, or anything usual. Starlink is new, and I have no understand of what those would look like. Comet isn't out of the question, but I doubt that.

My most current timelapse project is the garden and squash plants. Trying to get the images off the camera, via USB, without opening the sealed box, has become a major frustration. ()old camera, old software, new computers won't run Canon EOS utility, new versions don't work with older cameras!)

But without hijacking my own thread, star images will resume on a nice clear night and especially for Perseids in August.

If the mystery object appears again, I'll start thinking Starlink.

 

[wfooshee]

If that took 90 minutes to make that streak, it's not Starlink, those are much lower orbits.

You saved the world by an early detection of an alien starship on an invasion track!!! The light was from their fusion flame in a braking maneuver!

(OK, it's not like I'm Larry Niven or something...)

 

[AlanKlein]

Definitely aliens. Only a flying saucer can make a curve like that.

 

[wfooshee]

I seriously cannot think what would be high enough to move that slowly in an orbit, yet be visible on the ground, even to a long exposure.

 

[480sparky]

I seriously cannot think what would be high enough to move that slowly in an orbit, yet be visible on the ground, even to a long exposure.

Low Earth Orbit (1200 miles) mean an object orbits every 90 minutes. There's also Lagrange points on both sides of the moon (238000 miles) which means they orbit every 28 days. And if you want to get technical, a satellite placed in a Lagrange point between the earth and sun orbits every 365 days. So if satellites can be placed in those distances, satellites can be placed anywhere in between.

 

[wfooshee]

It turns out that GPS satellites have an orbit of about 12 hours, about 11 or 12 thousand miles up, in orbits tilted 55 degrees from the equator. So I'm kinda thinking a GPS satellite, but showing up on a camera? Wow!

 

[AlanKlein]

Why couldn't it be a meteor?

 

[wfooshee]

He said the streak is not a single frame, but dots over a 90-minute period.

 

[snowbear]

It's a T.A.R.D.I.S.

 

[snowbear]

It turns out that GPS satellites have an orbit of about 12 hours, about 11 or 12 thousand miles up, in orbits tilted 55 degrees from the equator. So I'm kinda thinking a GPS satellite, but showing up on a camera? Wow!

What about one of the other GNSS? There are a few, now.

 

[AlanKlein]

He said the streak is not a single frame, but dots over a 90-minute period.

A slow meteor.