Have I found something ? As expected false alarm :)

[Catanonia]

I have had this blue area that looks like a planetary nebula suddenly appear in one of my images that was not there 30 mins ago.

I have no idea what it is and am racking my brain, comet, flare, planet, plane, satellite.

but it suddenly appeared after 30 mins of subs and moves slightly against the stars.

it does not appear in any other images that I am doing as a mosaic.

I am sure it is not something undiscovered, but a 2nd opinion check is worth a aslk

see the image attached. Go east from the horse head and you will see a circular blue structure at looks out of place.

image is a single 3min 2x bin unedited sub from rasa8 and 2600mc pro

As said before, does not appear in any other panels of my mosaic so ruling out image train ‘ camera problems and it is moving randomly (outside of dither range)

if I have found something, i hope I have booked my bunker place

thank you.

Edited January 21, 2023 by Catanonia

[Catanonia]

• Checked Stellarium, nothing of interest
• Other subs in different parts of mosaic taken 3 mins before don’t show this on image. So not image / camera train as far as I can tell.
• artefact appeared after 30 mins of subs where it did not appear
• camera and sub specs not changed during this image train.
• it appears to move by about 100 pixels back and forth against the star background.
• Appeared in roughly same place fore last 2 hours.
•  
• totally confused
•  

[Catanonia]

Forgot to add it was using OCTO long enhance filter but can’t see who this would magically make this artefact appear after 30mins

[Astroscot2]

I suspect its an internal reflection of Alnitak due to collimation or tile somethere in the image train, stars look a bit distorted.

 

Mark

 

Mark

Edited January 21, 2023 by Astroscot2

[Catanonia]

2 hours ago, Astroscot2 said:

I suspect its an internal reflection of Alnitak due to collimation or tile somethere in the image train, stars look a bit distorted.

 

Mark

 

Mark

I am pretty sure it is an artefact as it appears very very faintly on some of the other mosaic images in exactly the same sensor spot. This would indicate something in the image train.

The movement was due to images not being exactly pixel perfect aligned. A quick alignment of the subs showed it to be in the same spot of the sensor each time. Just some images brighter than others.

It appeared suddenly in this section of the mosaic due to a meridian flip (noting the times) and hence moved to a different part of the sky where this part of the sensor imaged.

Definitely not (as expected) aliens

Now to try and work where in the image train the problem is. I suspect something rogue on the sensor glass, but hard to believe as it has not be dismantled for months and never seen it before.

Will check the flats too

Edited January 21, 2023 by Catanonia