What the heck??

[RichM63]

I'm baffled.

I had the camera and 600mm pointed in the general direction of Orion S/E ish at around 18.10 UK time.

One of the frames caught this strange thing.

Note that it seems to be 'behind' the stars which I think are Alinam and Mintaka, and no it can't be Jupiter rising over the field!

Any thoughts (ps the lens is clean etc etc)

Cheers, Rich

[Mr niall]

Top of Iggle piggles head?

[coatesg]

Can't see any stars... Either something grossly out of focus, or a lens flare from the moon?

[LightBucket]

No stars showing on either image for me...!! Or anything weird, except an out of focus doughnut at the bottom, is that what you mean..?

[johnfosteruk]

Lightbucket's got it, it's a doughnut, or a Vogon Constructor ship - or a reflection of something.

[JOC]

I see black boxes with a blue chad rising in the bottom right.  I can't see any stars at all!

[michaelmorris]

As others have intimated, it looks for all the world like a very out of focus star.

[johnfosteruk]

2 minutes ago, michaelmorris said:

As others have intimated, it looks for all the world like a very out of focus star.

 

14 minutes ago, JOC said:

I see black boxes with a blue chad rising in the bottom right.  I can't see any stars at all!

But there are stars if you look at the full size, so very odd indeed.

Either that or someone taped something to the front of his lens when he wasn't looking.

100% crop, M42 region I think.

[michaelmorris]

8 minutes ago, johnfosteruk said:

 

But there are stars if you look at the full size, so very odd indeed.

Either that or someone taped something to the front of his lens when he wasn't looking.

100% crop, M42 region I think.

Okay, in that case either those are hot pixels and the offending object is an out of focus start, or they are stars in which case it would most likely be lens flare.

[SilverAstro]

Yep, lots of tight stars pixel peeping

too diffuse to be a lens artefact  of the moon, a sharp bunnie close to the sensor which is metallic or at least reflective of the moon ??? maybe

[RichM63]

Yeah the upload deleted the stars in the compressed image. They are visible on my local screen.

Not lens flare, too low, and the lens has a 'bucket scoop' over the front, + it was set on MF and not touched twixt it and the Moon so focus should have been OK.

Maybe that NZ balloon landing?

I'll just put it down to "odd".