FMO (Fast Moving Object) in foreground of NGC891 core.

Pierre - thanks just the same for the suggestion. The reason I was so
emphatic is that from my experience as a SpaceWatch Reviewer, I've seen
so many hits (and in some of my own images I've taken) that it just
doesn't appear to have the characteristics. When I magnify the image,
it does not have the jagged series of pixels all having the same or
close to the same brightness. This object has a trailing/diminishing
series of pixels and appears to skip over some pixels in the train
(hence, the tumbler). And, of course, it's all moot if noone else can
confirm the observation with a similar image.

Regards and many thanks for your contribution!

Bill in Gold Canyon, AZ

Perhaps one day they will have minimum wage space workers going round
clearing up the space debris for recycling? Once it's up there it would
be cheaper to re-use than overcoming earth's gravity with new
materials.

What about the apparent curve of the object's trajectory? Could this be
an artefact of your driven instrument "following the sky" rather than
the object itself? If the object was almost line-of-sight would this
produce an artificial curve on the image? Or are we talking about a
possible external atmospheric 'bouncer' here?

Chris.B

wrote:

Pierre - thanks just the same for the suggestion. The reason I was so
emphatic is that from my experience as a SpaceWatch Reviewer, I've seen
so many hits (and in some of my own images I've taken) that it just
doesn't appear to have the characteristics. When I magnify the image,
it does not have the jagged series of pixels all having the same or
close to the same brightness.

Equally though it doesn't appear to be convolved with the long exposure
point spread function of your telescope. I'd say it was 2-3x sharper.
That is circumstantial evidence for it being quickly over.

How do cosmic ray hits appear on one shot colour cameras? I could
imagine the interaction with the Bayer mask along certain diagonal
tracks might make the intensity vary. But I can't see any obvious chroma
variation though so I am inclined to discount that possibilty.

It may have been a transient thing like a micro meteorite. But since it
is so enticingly close to the nucleus it may still be of interest to
professional astronomers just in case it is an observation of something
extremely transient occurring near the object. Hard to imagine
something that would be quick enough though.

Professional images of this galaxy tend to burn out the nucleus...

This object has a trailing/diminishing
series of pixels and appears to skip over some pixels in the train
(hence, the tumbler). And, of course, it's all moot if noone else can
confirm the observation with a similar image.

It would be great if someone did have a contemporaneous image.

Regards,
Martin Brown