Can someone help me identify this object in my photo?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Uchuujin_7
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Photo
AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around a photo taken by William Milberry using a Canon Powershot A85, where he captured a strange object in the night sky during a 15-second exposure. After brightening the image, he noticed an unusual object resembling a large star with a tail, which he ruled out as a shooting star or nearby object. Participants suggested that the object might be internal lens flare from the bright star Vega in the Lyra constellation, and pointed out the nearby constellation Sagitta for reference. William expressed his interest in astronomy but acknowledged his limited knowledge. The conversation highlights the challenges of identifying celestial objects in astrophotography.
Uchuujin_7
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
I was in the country where it was dark and the sky was clear and beautiful, so I aimed my Canon Powershot A85 (a great camera, but not as good as a digital SLR) towards the sky and did a 15 second exposure just to see if it would see the Milky Way (because my eyes could a bit.)

The picture was dark and didnt' show much until I brightened it, and then I noticed a strange object that looked like a large star with a tail or jet. I know it wasn't a shooting star or anything near by as that would have appeared as a long, thin streak like the line in the lower left of the photo which was a plane that flew by.

I marked this object in the photo and enlarged it: http://www.aluminumstudios.com/lj/night_sky2434.jpg Can anyone help me figure out what it is, if it is anything at all? I added the relavent location, direction, information into the photo.

I like astronomy but know relatively little.

Thanks,

~William Milberry
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Astronomy news on Phys.org
The image is unnaturally shaped [square] and very blue. Possibly a mercury vapor streetlight.
 
Chronos said:
The image is unnaturally shaped [square] and very blue. Possibly a mercury vapor streetlight.

I was in the middle of a field in the middle of the country and the object in quiestion was in the middle of the sky as I was looking straight up. It's not any type of street light ...

Any squareness comes from the limited resolution of the image and the limited number of pixels with which the object was captured.
 
Can't be a sattelite, at 15 seconds that would be a long narrow streak like the plane.
 
Uchuujin_7 said:
I was in the country where it was dark and the sky was clear and beautiful, so I aimed my Canon Powershot A85 (a great camera, but not as good as a digital SLR) towards the sky and did a 15 second exposure just to see if it would see the Milky Way (because my eyes could a bit.)

The picture was dark and didnt' show much until I brightened it, and then I noticed a strange object that looked like a large star with a tail or jet. I know it wasn't a shooting star or anything near by as that would have appeared as a long, thin streak like the line in the lower left of the photo which was a plane that flew by.

I marked this object in the photo and enlarged it: http://www.aluminumstudios.com/lj/night_sky2434.jpg Can anyone help me figure out what it is, if it is anything at all? I added the relavent location, direction, information into the photo.

I like astronomy but know relatively little.

Thanks,

~William Milberry
You have captured internal lens flare from Vega, the really bright star in the Lyra constellation. If you will look at the right hand side of the photo, you will see the tiny arrow-shaped constellation of Sagitta. Star charts will tell you all the rest.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Publication: Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars Article: NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year Press conference The ~100 authors don't find a good way this could have formed without life, but also can't rule it out. Now that they have shared their findings with the larger community someone else might find an explanation - or maybe it was actually made by life.
TL;DR Summary: In 3 years, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope (or rather, a system of telescopes) should be put into operation. In case of failure to detect alien signals, it will further expand the radius of the so-called silence (or rather, radio silence) of the Universe. Is there any sense in this or is blissful ignorance better? In 3 years, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope (or rather, a system of telescopes) should be put into operation. In case of failure to detect...
This thread is dedicated to the beauty and awesomeness of our Universe. If you feel like it, please share video clips and photos (or nice animations) of space and objects in space in this thread. Your posts, clips and photos may by all means include scientific information; that does not make it less beautiful to me (n.b. the posts must of course comply with the PF guidelines, i.e. regarding science, only mainstream science is allowed, fringe/pseudoscience is not allowed). n.b. I start this...
Back
Top