Need a sleuth to decipher this image

An acquaintance posted this image on a bulletin board, claiming he
snapped this with his digicam on a 15 second exposure, and zoom set at
3x.

He speculated that it might be a planet.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis.jpg

However, at only 3x, the image seems much too large to be a planet.

I messed with the jpg, looking for alterations, pastes, etc. but could
find nothing obvious.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

P.S.
NO, I am *NOT* trolling for any Planet-X nonsense!!

--------------------------------------------------------
preface email address with 'd' to defeat anti-spaminator

"djarvinen" ) asked about Planet Q:

An acquaintance posted this image on a bulletin board, claiming
he snapped this with his digicam on a 15 second exposure, and
zoom set at 3x.

He speculated that it might be a planet.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis.jpg

However, at only 3x, the image seems much too large to be a
planet.

Did he say that he aimed the camera at the sky?

The shape does appear to be nicely round. If the exposure
really was 3x for 15 seconds, the camera was quite steady.
With a fixed camera, in 15 seconds any celestial object would
be slightly elongated. The lighting on the shape appears to
shade gradually from right to left, which, if real and not an
artifact of the imaging process, indicates that it is some
small object, close-up.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

..

Jeff Root wrote:

"djarvinen" ) asked about Planet Q:


An acquaintance posted this image on a bulletin board, claiming
he snapped this with his digicam on a 15 second exposure, and
zoom set at 3x.

He speculated that it might be a planet.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis.jpg

However, at only 3x, the image seems much too large to be a
planet.


Did he say that he aimed the camera at the sky?

The shape does appear to be nicely round. If the exposure
really was 3x for 15 seconds, the camera was quite steady.
With a fixed camera, in 15 seconds any celestial object would
be slightly elongated. The lighting on the shape appears to
shade gradually from right to left, which, if real and not an
artifact of the imaging process, indicates that it is some
small object, close-up.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

.

Jeff,

Also it seems odd to me, assuming that this is supposed to be an
astronomical photo, that there are no other objects in the frame,
and that the object shows a distinct and large disk. At 15
seconds, I'd expect at least some stars in the field.

The disk seems to be overwhelmingly blue and white. I suspect
it may be a digital image of a photo of the earth from some space
probe.

Tom McDonald

"djarvinen" wrote in message
om...
An acquaintance posted this image on a bulletin board, claiming he
snapped this with his digicam on a 15 second exposure, and zoom set at
3x.

He speculated that it might be a planet.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis.jpg

However, at only 3x, the image seems much too large to be a planet.

I messed with the jpg, looking for alterations, pastes, etc. but could
find nothing obvious.

Anyone have any ideas?


Looks like my second wife, receeding into the distance at a very high rate
of speed.

Or, it could be Santa Claus.

Frank




Thanks.

P.S.
NO, I am *NOT* trolling for any Planet-X nonsense!!

--------------------------------------------------------
preface email address with 'd' to defeat anti-spaminator

(djarvinen) wrote in message . com...
An acquaintance posted this image on a bulletin board, claiming he
snapped this with his digicam on a 15 second exposure, and zoom set at
3x.

He speculated that it might be a planet.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis.jpg

However, at only 3x, the image seems much too large to be a planet.

I messed with the jpg, looking for alterations, pastes, etc. but could
find nothing obvious.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

P.S.
NO, I am *NOT* trolling for any Planet-X nonsense!!

--------------------------------------------------------
preface email address with 'd' to defeat anti-spaminator

A racket ball on a black carpet?

Cheers,

Ned

"djarvinen" wrote in message
om...
An acquaintance posted this image on a bulletin board, claiming he
snapped this with his digicam on a 15 second exposure, and zoom set at
3x.

He speculated that it might be a planet.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis.jpg

However, at only 3x, the image seems much too large to be a planet.

I messed with the jpg, looking for alterations, pastes, etc. but could
find nothing obvious.

Anyone have any ideas?


Out of focus star?

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove "pants" spamblock to send e-mail)


Thanks.

P.S.
NO, I am *NOT* trolling for any Planet-X nonsense!!

--------------------------------------------------------
preface email address with 'd' to defeat anti-spaminator

(djarvinen) wrote in message news:

OK, here is another image he posted which is quite large. The object
is in the upper right hand corner.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis2.jpg

Like another poster, I also had the earth in mind because of the blues
and whites that show up when you examine it a little closer. And
obviously, if it is the earth, then the photo is bogus.

The guy who took this is not known to be a prankster or an idiot but I
can't help but feel he's having us on with this image.

I still see no obvious touch-up marks but then I'm not really too good
at deciphering this stuff nor do I have anything but the ordinary
tools.


--------------------------------------------------------
preface email address with 'd' to defeat anti-spaminator

djarvinen wrote:

An acquaintance posted this image on a bulletin board, claiming he
snapped this with his digicam on a 15 second exposure, and zoom set at
3x.

He speculated that it might be a planet.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis.jpg

However, at only 3x, the image seems much too large to be a planet.

I messed with the jpg, looking for alterations, pastes, etc. but could
find nothing obvious.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

It may be an image of Jupiter, if this is a small fragment of a whole
frame (and the pixel dimensions suggests this). If so, he has a very
sharp camera.

--
John Popelish

(djarvinen) wrote in message . com...
(djarvinen) wrote in message news:

OK, here is another image he posted which is quite large. The object
is in the upper right hand corner.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis2.jpg

Like another poster, I also had the earth in mind because of the blues
and whites that show up when you examine it a little closer. And
obviously, if it is the earth, then the photo is bogus.

The guy who took this is not known to be a prankster or an idiot but I
can't help but feel he's having us on with this image.

I still see no obvious touch-up marks but then I'm not really too good
at deciphering this stuff nor do I have anything but the ordinary
tools.


--------------------------------------------------------
preface email address with 'd' to defeat anti-spaminator

A racketball tossed in the air then photographed. Notice that it is
overcast, no stars, yet a color object is visible.

Cheers,

Ned

"Ned Flanders" wrote in message
m...
(djarvinen) wrote in message
. com...
(djarvinen) wrote in message news:

OK, here is another image he posted which is quite large. The object
is in the upper right hand corner.

http://www.proaxis.com/~djarvinen/misc/WhatIsThis2.jpg

Like another poster, I also had the earth in mind because of the blues
and whites that show up when you examine it a little closer. And
obviously, if it is the earth, then the photo is bogus.

The guy who took this is not known to be a prankster or an idiot but I
can't help but feel he's having us on with this image.

I still see no obvious touch-up marks but then I'm not really too good
at deciphering this stuff nor do I have anything but the ordinary
tools.


--------------------------------------------------------
preface email address with 'd' to defeat anti-spaminator

A racketball tossed in the air then photographed. Notice that it is
overcast, no stars, yet a color object is visible.

Cheers,

Ned

Try applying brightness, contrast, and saturation to each of the two images.
The one with the ball reveals a jumble of colors everywhere, which either
means a truly awful camera or a background that just isn't the sky. Apply
the exact same settings to the second one, and the image stays black, as
does a selection of digital photos of the moon and planets that I've put to
the same test. Since it seems safe to assume that both of these pictures
were taken with the same camera, this radical difference must mean that the
conditions weren't even close to being the same for both, and that the
background in the first one probably isn't the sky.