Was it a Meteor?

[moondog]

I've been looking back at some of the first shots I took of the night sky when I got the Canon at the end of July.

One taken at 11.00pm 28 July 2006 seems to have a meteor track running diagonally across the image.

This was a 60 sec shot with the Canon piggybacked on the scope.

I think the camera was pointed fairly high to the North West at the time.

I was only seeing if the camera worked OK and not trying to image anything in particular.

I attach this image - what do you think?

MD

[FLO]

Probably a satellite...

[Jamie]

Looks more like a satelite to me mate.

Nice image though.

[Astroman]

Agreed. Satellite. Note how it abruptly ends at the lower right. Meteors generally fade.

(spelling? Who kneads it?)

[moondog]

Thanks for the comments.

Next time I'll know how to tell the difference !

I bet if I deliberately tried to image a satellite I wouldn't get one.

This was a pure fluke....point the camera somewhere in the sky and press the button!

MD

[daz]

How are you getting on with the Canon in general MD?

I'm loving mine so far!!

[moondog]

Daz

I think it's a great camera. Easy to use - even outside at night. The LCD light is a great help

Also for someone like me who depends on free software (apart from PS Elements) the software with the Canon is excellent.

I've used this software instead of PS Elements for a number of astro images.

Much better for DSO's than I thought it might be. Even my first attempts at using the Canon for DSO's surprised me by turning out fine. I normally image astro shots on the B&W RAW setting, what do you use?. I've tried the mirror lock up setting but not found much vibration problem without it. Similarly tried the long exposure noise reduction, but this doubles the imaging session time without ( as far as I can see ) making much difference to the final image.

Just a thought - I could take several mages of, say, the Orion area at prime focus and use the Canon autostitch software to produce a large composite image. Mmmm.....I'll give it a try when Orion is better placed.

MD

[daz]

I've been playing with the different ISO settings at different length exposures, and as you, in RAW mode though usually in colour! I usually use the mirror-lock up (why not - it's there!!), but not the noise reduction (for the same reason).

I've been playing with DSLRFocus but I'm finding it a bit tempermental TBH, the only downside to the Canon software is the longest exposure of 30 seconds.

Look forward to the Orion pic!!