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Anyone know what this might be?

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nickdavies
(@nickdavies)
Posts: 4
New Member
Topic starter
 

Hey People.

First of all I like to raise a glass to Mike for a great lecture today on astrophotography (sorry for turning up late, I got slightly confused and went to the deep sky lecture a week early!).

Anyway, the lecture prompted me to ask about this. In one of my first CCD sessions I noticed “something” crossing the frame. Guessing it’s a satellite of some sort, but the south - north direction made it a little more interesting. Some military maybe?

I’ve searched however and have yet to come up with a conclusive answer...

https://vimeo.com/301949025

Around 2:13 in the video.

The resulting image wasn’t too bad though...

https://instagram.com/p/BpKwnlLBe_-/

Thanks.

Nick

 
Posted : 20/11/2018 10:44 pm
Mike Meynell
(@mikem)
Posts: 875
Prominent Member
 

Glad you enjoyed it this evening, Nick.

That’s a great image of the Moon.

As regards the “mystery object” it looks like a satellite or perhaps a piece of space debris. There are quite a few south-north satellites and not all are military / spy satellite in origin. Many environmental satellites have this orbital path so that they can cover the whole planetary surface over a period of time.

There will be quite a few rocket bodies as well... and particularly remnants of old Soviet spy satellites.

SkySafari has satellites included in the database now, so that’s a good place to look. Orbitrack is another app that is quite useful for satellite data.

 
Posted : 20/11/2018 11:15 pm
Mike Meynell
(@mikem)
Posts: 875
Prominent Member
 

Looking at it again in close-up, the object does appear to be changing shape (though that could be atmospherics)... leading me to suspect that it’s an object that’s tumbling and therefore probably space debris, like a spent rocket booster or rocket body.

 
Posted : 20/11/2018 11:20 pm
nickdavies
(@nickdavies)
Posts: 4
New Member
Topic starter
 

Yeah I think you could be right. At higher resolution it definitely appears to be changing shape. Interesting stuff! Thanks mike!

 
Posted : 21/11/2018 7:09 am
Tej
 Tej
(@tej)
Posts: 636
Honorable Member
 

That's a fascinating capture of a mysterious transit, Nick!  And a lovely pan of the moon in its own right. But the final image is fabulous, nice work.   Also, great detective work from both of you!

 

 

 
Posted : 22/11/2018 2:29 pm
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