While taking a series of four 3-second time lapse photographs of Jupiter and its moons on Thursday night, I captured an object moving which I cannot fully explain. You can see the object moving below Jupiter in the video above, moving in the opposite direction of Jupiter rising in the night sky. This series of pictures was taken over a period of about two minutes, so it's too slow or distant to be an earth-bound aircraft. It is headed in the opposite direction as the motion of the night sky, so it's not a star or solar system object. And it's not a reflection of light on the lens, hot pixel or other photographic artefact, as these would be stationary and not appear to move. So what in the Universe could it be? The mind boggles.
Below are the four photographs taken, so you can have a closer look and perhaps help me work out what exactly that object is. These were taken afocally, viz. a camera attached by an adapter and T-Ring to a 26mm eyepiece on the telescope and operated remotely by computer. Each exposure was for 3 seconds. Unfortunately, I could not take any further photos of the object, as it had gone past the eyepiece's field of view after the fourth shot.
All photographs on this page © Sabri Zain 2012.
If it was 'moving in the opposite direction of Jupiter rising in the night sky' I'm guessing it was travelling West to East.
ReplyDeleteIn that case it was almost certainly a satellite.
Where were you in the world and at what time? The website Heavens Above (http://www.heavens-above.com/) gives times of satellite passes, and I think it gives historrical data too.
Another website you could check is CalSky (http://www.calsky.com/).