vinnya Loc: connecticut

Not the greatest pic but anybody have an idea what is up with Jupiter, was taking photos to stack and this appears in just one photo. Did a meteor show up for a visit.

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gekko11 Loc: Las Cruces NM

Interesting ,,,how long is the exposure? is this a single exposure? focal length? can you post the frame immediately before and after this one,,, I don't think its a meteor as it seems to curve, i suspect an insect flew by during the exposure and reflected some incidental light , but IDK. I usually shoot Perseid showers but every available night has been cloudy!

vinnya Loc: connecticut

I noticed the curve in it also. single exposure 15 sec. at f2.8 14mm on olympus M1 MK11. I'll get the before and after

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

Do I notice a slight star trailing (which seems unusual for such a short exposure)? If so, then maybe it is just a bright, but slow moving, satellite. I never saw a meteor with a curved trail. lens flair? UFO? Rather strange, whatever it is!

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Satellites also do not leave curved trails.

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

It *might* appear curved if it was going really slow, and the sky rotated (earth rotated, actually) while the exposure was being taken. To be honest, I myself question my own theory about that! It was a bit of a stretch at best! But yeah, of course satellites travel in a straight line also, plus the line is pretty bright. Probably just a friendly UFO flying by.....

jblazar Loc: Sunnyvale, CA

There is also a smoke trail (cloud?) to the left. Could be the smoke trail from a fireball meteor.

hettmoe Loc: Rural ND

I guess I would have just kept this to myself...........

jblazar Loc: Sunnyvale, CA

Sorry, smoke to the right, not the left.

jkm757 Loc: San Diego, Ca.

I vote something else. You got an image of galactic visitors arriving through an interstellar worm hole.

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

The answer is obvious. Shoemaker Levy finally rebounded. Seriously, close examination shows the streak emantes/arrives at the very center of Jupiter which suggests that it has something to do with it, not something unrelated passing by. It's really a puzzle when you can't make up a story to describe what's happening. Doesn't have to be true, just a story that is consistent with the image. I just noticed that there is a very faint trail emanating/arriving at Saturn, parallel to but not as long as the one from Jupiter. May be significant.

I've got an image of Jupiter that is strange also. I'll see if I can find it and post it.

hettmoe Loc: Rural ND

Jupiter is a strange place.......

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Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

I think I may have a solution. The main "odd" feature is the curved line that goes up from Jupiter. I noticed a second fainter track going up from Saturn. The third brightest star in the sky is at the very top of the image almost straight up from Saturn. It too has a very faint parallel trail. To the right of Jupiter, not quite as far as Saturn is to the left are two more fairly bright stars. They too have a very faint parallel trail.

I think what happened is that something "bumped" your camera which caused these trails. The brightness of the trail seems to be proportional to the brightness of its parent star. If you have an image either before or after this one was taken, I think that one or both "stars" at the top of the Jupiter trail will be missing because they too are an artifact of the bumping.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Hey! My green laser made it to Jupiter!
Cool!

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

vinnya,

I think I may have a solution to the line in your image. I've responded to this topic once before and commented that I also saw a faint line from Saturn as well as Jupiter and on further inspection even fainter lines from a couple of other stars. I am posting a picture I took of Jupiter several years ago that also shows lines associated with Jupiter. One night as I was watching Jupiter I thought I saw it moving. I've come to understand that that impression is because of my 70+ year old eyeballs. When I look at bright stars/planets in the sky, after a few seconds, they appear to dance slightly. I took this image to prove that it was my eyeballs and much to my surprise, I got a picture of Jupiter moving. Have not been able to explain this until I saw your image and started thinking (dangerous in your seventies).

My theory is that in both your picture and mine, the camera was "bumped" at the very beginning of a long exposure. Because of the ISO setting, only the brighter stars showed the trail created by this motion. Stated another way, if the ISO setting had been set sufficiently high, all the stars in the image would have shown the same trail and the cause would have been obvious. But since the ISO was not high enough, only the brighter objects showed the trail. In my image, there was only Jupiter that showed the trail and left me with no explantion. Seeing your image and thinking about it, the too-low ISO (CCD sensor sensitivity) is probably the explanation.

I'd appreciate hearing from you to see if you concur. This solves a years-old conundrum for me.

I may have posted this explanation twice. If so, go back to that part about 70+ years old.

Is Jupiter "moving"

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