I need your help in figuring this out: For the last two nights, I have been imaging M42. Something I can't explain has happened both nights. Something is moving through the sky...

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

For the last two nights, I have been imaging M42. Something I can't explain has happened both nights. Something is moving through the sky (centered from top to bottom) both nights. There appears to be two objects moving very slowly vertically from top to bottom going right through M42. I have put those images up in order - the first 17 or from Jan 4th, the last set of images from last night.
Be sure to click on the first image to enlarge it, then if you click to the right of center towards the right edge, you should be able to scroll through all of the images. If not, look at the top of the site to the right and arrows are there to help navigate through the images.
http://www.edoverstreet.com/2016%20Photos/UFO/index.html

One of my "up" friends thinks it is satellites. But whatever it is isn't moving very fast (correction it doesn't appear to be moving very fast but that depends on how far away it is, methinks further than any satellite, at 30 seconds per frame, that is 9 minutes to move through the frame.

So my fellow "up shooting" compadres, "watcha think"?

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

My thought is Geosynchronous Satellites Ed.
They only appear to move because your tracking is moving.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

CraigFair wrote:

My thought is Geosynchronous Satellites Ed. They only appear to move because your tracking is moving.

You are probably right. That was the thought of a friend from our astronomy club. However, how can it be tracking and ORION be fixed. If they both, Orion and object are FIXED, then nothing should be moving. What am I missing?

There is one thing I am NOT, an astrophysicist :)
I am sure there is an easy explanation that will give me one of those, duh??? moments.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Yeah, Satellites, Ed. I wondered about some I took, even made a time lapse of them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tHhWivVmjQ

Then one day I was playing around with http://www.stellarium.org , and found the Satellite hints icon in the bottom menu. Sure enough, there was the satellites hanging up there. We are turning, and the Geo Sat's are hanging at the same rate. So, it appears they are traveling across Orion Nebula, but they aren't. Our rotation fools us into thinking they are. ;)

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

nikonshooter wrote:

You are probably right. That was the thought of a friend from our astronomy club. However, how can it be tracking and ORION be fixed. If they both, Orion and object are FIXED, then nothing should be moving. What am I missing.
There is one thing I am NOT, an astrophysicist :)
I am sure there is an easy explanation that will give me one of those, duh??? moments.

Orion is for all respects fixed in space but Earth rotates and the satellites move with it. Orion appears to move through the night sky because of the Earth's rotation and your telescope tracks it. It is actually your telescope moving not the satellites. If you photograph the night sky with no tracking you would get trails for the stars and fixed points for the satellites.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Thanks guys I have a lot to learn!

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

nikonshooter wrote:

Thanks guys I have a lot to learn!

It's all smoke and mirrors Ed. :lol: :lol:

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

CraigFair wrote:

It's all smoke and mirrors Ed. :lol: :lol:

I am just curious...is there anyone else photographing Orion from 7 pm to 10 pm lately. If so, did you have these two, I guess satellites, in your images.
Son-of-a-gun, I thought I may have just discovered "ET".
I was hoping I would have acceptable skies tonight but NADA, rain is coming. I would like to see if my two objects would show up again.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

nikonshooter wrote:

I am just curious...is there anyone else photographing Orion from 7 pm to 10 pm lately. If so, did you have these two, I guess satellites, in your images.
Son-of-a-gun, I thought I may have just discovered "ET".
I was hoping I would have acceptable skies tonight but NADA, rain is coming. I would like to see if my two objects would show up again.

They will Ed, I've seen them in shots from Sonny, Jim (Albuturkey) and my own. It's a very crowded portion of the sky at that time. Try shooting when Orion reaches its southernmost point in the sky. Your shots should be clean.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I really don't mind the clutter....I am taking 100 plus subs at a time and I just delete those and others with airplane tracks. But, I really couldn't figure out why they (two objects) were taking 9 minutes to travel the frame. But I get it....you explained it very well. I was staring out the window instead of paying attention in science I guess.

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

nikonshooter wrote:

I really don't mind the clutter....I am taking 100 plus subs at a time and I just delete those and others with airplane tracks. But, I really couldn't figure out why they (two objects) were taking 9 minutes to travel the frame. But I get it....you explained it very well. I was staring out the window instead of paying attention in science I guess.

If you look at the shots that I have posted recently, I have been shooting at a much higher magnification and the streaks cover the entire frame. In relation to the amount of movement in the photo, I am seeing much less area than you are and the streaks are much longer as a result.
You shots are much less magnified so the amount of movement looks small, but its not really all that small.
If you blew your shots up to the size I have been posting they would have the streaks just as far depending on the exposure length. I can almost always find satellite streaks because of the time I like to shoot and the area of sky that this nebula is in.
I hope this helps.
What were you shooting through? You say 30 seconds but no other details on the shots. It looks like around 300mm?
I have been shooting at 2300 X .6 so around 3600mm or about 10 times that length...

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Albuqshutterbug wrote:

If you look at the shots that I have posted recent... (show quote)

No doubt....I am at 400mm with a wide FOV with these images.

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

nikonshooter wrote:

No doubt....I am at 400mm with a wide FOV with these images.

Look at my shot 4 down from this post. You'll see what I mean. I have been shooting in the 1 minute range.

Camera Model Canon EOS 7D Tv(Shutter Speed) 63 Av(Aperture Value) 6.3 ISO Speed 320 Focal Length 600.0mm

(Download)

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

Also look at this link. Algol is the one that pointed me to Geostationary sats as the streakers in my shots.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-261975-1.html

Maybe this will help as well.
;)

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Albuqshutterbug wrote:

Also look at this link. Algol is the one that pointed me to Geostationary sats as the streakers in my shots.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-261975-1.html

Maybe this will help as well.
;)

Yep! Well I guess my quest to find ET flopped! I will leave that up to SETI and continue to try figure out this "up photo" thing.

I knew the "UglyHedgehog astro-imager gang" would have the answer!