Night Sky Photograph Question

[KathyM]

At a night sky photo shoot I shot this image with a Canon camera. Looking closer at the photo you can see what I take to be a meteor, but I do not understand the exact duplicate path that seems to show two meteors. The photography teacher was also shooting that night and the image showed up on her photograph the same way. So, I know I did not jostle my camera. It was secure on a tripod as hers was. 

Any advice on what the image might be or why it is showing as a duplicate line would be appreciated. Thank you, Kathy M. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

how long was the exposure? could just be a lucky double meteor shot. 

[Alien 13]

Interesting shot, I am wondering if the second trail is caused by reflections from a filter fitted to the lens. It may help if you could add details of all the kit used.

Alan

P.S. Welcome Kathy to SGL, there are lots of keen photographers on here.

[vlaiv]

Welcome to SGL.

Maybe it was a single meteor that split prior to entry due to earth gravity pull?

That would explain very parallel looking entry paths.

I don't think it is the same thing repeated two times - it looks like one of them (left / above) had a slightly different burn out rate - slightly brighter lower part of captured trajectory.

Also, because they end at the roughly same place - it is most likely if above scenario is true that it was not direct hit, but grazing of upper atmosphere - so called Earth-grazer. Left one might have hit a bit denser (lower) atmosphere - hence brighter burn.

(link on wiki for details on this phenomena: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth-grazing_fireball)

 

[KathyM]

Thank you very much for the advice.  I am using a Canon 7D Mark ll.  It does have a Pro Master Filter over the lens.  I do not know if the other photographer that got the same shot has a filter on her camera.  Also, this is the only image from that night shoot that came up double.  Others I took that night look fine.  One shows a satellite going through ( it shows up in 3 frames) and there are no double lines on it,  just a single horizontal line.  I will check the links suggested.  Again, thank you for your supportive advice.  Kathy M.  

[KathyM]

I believe it was a 30 second exposure. 

 

[Whirlwind]

Do you have any images of immediately before and after if you were taking them in a sequence.  That would definitively rule out a distant moving flying object. My suspicion is that they appear too perfectly aligned to be not man made. The alternative is that it is two satellites in the same orbit and they are both reflecting light from the sun at the same time.  That would explain both the timing and how parallel they are.  Again before and after images may help here - it's difficult to know whether the brightening event was truncated because of the exposure or the event.

[KathyM]

Many thanks.

This is a real mystery to me. The photographs immediately before and after this show nothing.  This is not an exposure photograph (my newbie terminology).  In other words, I was just hitting the shutter quickly.

I am certainly no satellite expert, but my belief is that if it were a satellite it would not have shown that long of a trail. I know that when meteors hit the atmosphere they can often travel at the speed of a bullet or faster which might explain the length of the trail.  (Satellites of course can travel at high speed but they are much higher up).

The above said, I am having trouble believing that a meteor could split apart and travel so perfectly in tandem .  I just don’t know.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

 

 

 

[happy-kat]

There is an online check for satellite activity on a given day. If I've bookmarked it I'll add it here.

Great image you've captured.

[Whirlwind]

13 hours ago, KathyM said:

Many thanks.

This is a real mystery to me. The photographs immediately before and after this show nothing.  This is not an exposure photograph (my newbie terminology).  In other words, I was just hitting the shutter quickly.

I am certainly no satellite expert, but my belief is that if it were a satellite it would not have shown that long of a trail. I know that when meteors hit the atmosphere they can often travel at the speed of a bullet or faster which might explain the length of the trail.  (Satellites of course can travel at high speed but they are much higher up).

The above said, I am having trouble believing that a meteor could split apart and travel so perfectly in tandem .  I just don’t know.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

 

 

 

Satellites unfortunately can look a bit like meteors if you catch them only partially through the process of brightening.  I've attached two images from an all sky camera from last night using 30 second exposures.  In the first you can see on the mid right something that looks like a meteor which in isolation we perhaps could assume is.  However in the second image there is another parallel trail that goes from bright to almost invisible (if you stretch the image a lot you can see it for longer).  Hence for part of the exposure the satellite has a surface that is reflecting sunlight with an angle that is just correct for us to see it.  As that angle becomes less ideal it fades away again.  Really spectacular ones are generally iridum flares (another image of one caught just to the top shown from a few nights ago).

[davew]

Hi Kathy,

Have a look at the third photo here - https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/318306-pembrokeshire-road-trip-day-2-%E2%80%93-broadhaven-beach-and-church-rock/

I think John has the answer for you.

Then look at the rest of his images

Dave.