Tonight, I discovered a mysterious object in two of my “Jupiter with Uranus” images. Perhaps, someone can help me to determine what it is.
Some points to consider:
1) Both images are 30-sec exposures. The first was taken at 18:49; the second was acquired at 18:50. (Thirty seconds elapsed between the end of the first exposure and the start of the second exposure.)
2) Although the mystery object appears as a mere dot against the extended trails of the background stars, a close-crop reveals that the mystery object is also trailed, as would be expected with a long exposure and as would not be expected with typical image noise.
3) The stars’ trails extend from upper-left to lower-right, in the direction that the stars are actually moving, but the mystery object’s trail extends in a direction perpendicular to the stars, yet it appears to move (from one image to the next) in a direction exactly opposite that of the stars (from lower right to upper left.)
4) As luck would have it, my dog bumped the tripod during one of the exposures. Oddly enough, it was actually “good luck”, because the mysterious object reveals the same “bump” seen in all of the stars – something one would not expect to see with typical image noise.
5) A satellite would show a much longer trail with a 30-sec exposure and it would have traveled much further between the two exposures.
6) A satellites check in Stellarium shows one craft, AO7, at 15-degrees beneath Jupiter and Uranus three-minutes after the second exposure. Less than one-degree separates Jupiter and Uranus.
The images: (These can be enlarged by clicking on the images. Images 2 and 3 are especially large, to show more detail, and should be closed using the “close” tag in the bottom right corner of the image. If you click the “X” in the top right corner of your browser, you will close the web page.)
This first image is an animated gif of four frames: original image, labeled, crop insert, and apparent movement.
Animation - 4 frames
This second image is the first of the two original images. This is the dog-bumped image, acquired at 18:49.
Original Image #1 - EST 18:49
This third image is the second of the two original images. This image was acquired at 18:50.
Original Image #2 - EST 18:50
