Lots and lots and lots of white objects

[Captain Scarlet]

With a spare clear sunny afternoon today, I decided to set up, mock-polar align and generally fiddle around.

I found myself looking up at random blue sky about 15 degrees away from the Sun, and seeing small rather bright white seemingly fast-moving objects crossing the field of view constantly.

At 30x mag, I would see one perhaps every second. As I travelled up through the magnifications in the hope I could make out some shape, they remained too small to discern any shape, even at 108x. They were at different heights as I needed to use the focusser, mostly traveling South-ish but not always, and st varying speeds. But all the same objects as far as I could tell.

Have any of you done this and seen the same?

i have no idea what they were. Migrating birds? Satellites? Space Junk? Dust particles at just the right angle to the Sun?

Looking forward to reading your ideas...

Cheers, MAgnus.

[Alan White]

Yes Magnus, I have noted this is White light Solar in previous years.
No idea what the objects were or are, so will be intrigued to find out.
Let's hope someone in the SGL family knows.
 

[Paul M]

Well our sky is full of flying ants today so maybe some of them?

[MessierX]

Hi,

Are thease pin point flashes of light. If so they are probably acutally caused by your eye. The phenomena basically takes place on your retina when you look at bright objects. The following article may be of use.

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/symptoms/flashes-of-light

Best

GW

[Captain Scarlet]

5 minutes ago, GWalles said:

Hi,

Are thease pin point flashes of light. If so they are probably acutally caused by your eye. The phenomena basically takes place on your retina when you look at bright objects. The following article may be of use.

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/symptoms/flashes-of-light

Best

GW

They are definitely real objects at varying heights that respond to changes in focus. One or two have had visible structure, and with a wide field at 30x-ish there will often be 3-4 in the same field of view, travelling different directions at different speeds. Now I know what to look for, I might try to get some video in due course...

[MessierX]

That's very interesting Magnus. The structures you mention may be again, small segments of the cornea that break up in the eye and come in an out of focus. Also in bright light you get reflective effects taking place. These pieces of cornea have random structure and move around rapidly on the surface of the eye.  You can test this out easily. On a bright afternoon, cloase your eyes and then focus on the inner of your eyelids, you'll see the cornea floaters and the white specks of light as well.

GW

[MessierX]

Failing that, as Mr Spock once said "Its life Jim, but not as we know it" 

[Gina]

I don't get flashes of light in my eyes!

[Astroscot2]

Probably pollen particles floating in the breeze. If you obscure the sun with something you will see lots of objects floating around

 

Mark

[Phil Fargaze]

I recently read the book The Haunted Observatory by Richard Baum (recommended) and chapter 9 entitled `Lichtflocken` deals with reports of a similar phenomenon. The book is an interesting journey into the history of astronomy so the reports are from some years ago ie. 18th-19th century.  I don`t think there was a definite conclusion as to what it might be but it might be anything from insects, pollen, dust flying on a breeze or as mentioned something to do with the observer themselves. A search of `Lichtflocken` on the web produced some results including a youtube video demonstration here

[Carbon Brush]

This does sound interesting. Not something I have seen. With the eyes, we all avoid looking close to the sun. With a solar equipped scope we look at the sun. With any other scope in daylight, we generally stay well away from the sun.

The only time I have used an astro scope pointing anything like close to the sun it has been for viewing an evening Mercury, Venus, etc.

Excellent you tube find by Phil.

Thanks, David.

 

[Paul M]

Just to bang the flying ant drum again..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49023143