Can anyone tell me what this is? weather balloon?

[Madhatter]

I came in late tonight and the skys outside were really nice, i didnt setup my telescope as i really must sleep but i just looked at the stars with the naked eye.

A couple of days back i learnt my cheap digital camera can do 15/30/60 second long exsposures, i thought tonight id take a quick 30sec photo to see the differance in the coulors of the stars.

When uploading to my computer i noticed a green star? but the strange thing is there seems to be no trail..a satillite was due overhead a few mins before the photo taken, but if this was a satellite would it not also have a trail?.

There dosent seem to be any trail at all. There does however seem to be a tail.

here is a couple of photos taken at 3.15am,i have had to try and zoom in abit because the photo is much bigger and keeps on getting scaled down losing the green coulor. Any idea what this is?.

[msinclairinork]

Occam's razor- If there is no trail then either the object was 100% static or so far away the camera didn't detect any movment or more likley some imperfection in the camera chip.

That be my guess anyway...

HTH

Michael

[Madhatter]

Thanks for the quick responce:) iv never heard of Occam's razor before, it does seem to have some kind of structure tho? or can the camera chip make it look that way?.

[msinclairinork]

Occam's razor - "the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one."

I see what you mean....

I'm no expert on CCD chips but it could be dust etc..

Or might be a high orbit satellite?

Just spit-balling now...

Michael

[sbooder]

Or it was something travelling directly towards you; sometimes aircraft appear to be stationary at night for some considerable time for this reason.

[Nibor]

Occam's razor - "the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one."

I see what you mean....

I'm no expert on CCD chips but it could be dust etc..

Or might be a high orbit satellite?

Just spit-balling now...

Michael

I just had to explore "Occam's Razor" as I had never heard of the phrase - as ever Wikipedia came to the rescue with the following:-

Occam's razor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You learn something every day!!

Robin

[Madhatter]

Im still confused what this is, it deffinatly wasnt a plane. there was a sat that passed a few mins before but not on the same trajectory.

[Daniel-K]

hot pixel maybe??

[Madhatter]

I dont really understand hot pixels, but im guessing its a miscoulored pixel. What i thought was strange is the tail, it almost appears to be some kind of solar panel and a different coulor , could a pixel gone wrong do do that?

[Daniel-K]

I don't really know either lol but if you ever find out what it is let us all know

[Si W]

Could be a geostationary satellite

[Andy79]

Does any of your other pictures have this little green dot in them to possibly explain a dodgy pixel??

Im thinking maybe your camera did see something

[Madhatter]

Hi andy, we have never seen anything like this in any of our pictures before this one, and have taken plenty since and not seen a thing out of place.

Very interesting Si W, so there is satellites up there that stay in the same place? never knew that:)

Has anyone seen any other close up pictures of pixels that are playing up? theres a deffinate tail there, question is could a bad pixel make it?.

[Andy79]

It looks like something from space invaders!

Its defo something like a satellite id say

[Si W]

Very interesting Si W, so there is satellites up there that stay in the same place? never knew that:)

Yes Madhatter, there are satellites that from are prospective stay still, the geostationary satellites orbit the earth in exactly 24 hour, and with the earth going round on it's axis every 24 hours it would seem not to move, but if you was in space you would see the earth rotate and the satellites would follow it, and be above the same place on the planet, but because the satellites is moving with the earth from the suns propective the angle of it's solarpanels would shift, so the light would be seen at differing brightness and different angles. From an earth bound observer the brightness would change, a good example is the satellites that provides Sky TV, if it wasn't a geostationary satellites the satellites dish on people house's would have to move to track the satellite .

Edit: I wonder, could that bit sticking out of the bottom of your first image be a solarpanel ?, it does beg the question.