ASTRO: M51 with DSLR - M51_20Apr2007_.5_size.jpg (0/1)

From Blue Knob, PA. 20 April 2007. Taken with an NP-101 at F/5.4.
Single 20 minute exposue with a Hutech Canon 350D at 400ASA. No dark
frame. Reduced 50% and cropped. Note two smaller galaxies to the
right and something that left a trail towards the bottom..

Robert Price wrote:
From Blue Knob, PA. 20 April 2007. Taken with an NP-101 at F/5.4.
Single 20 minute exposue with a Hutech Canon 350D at 400ASA. No dark
frame. Reduced 50% and cropped. Note two smaller galaxies to the
right and something that left a trail towards the bottom..

That object is sure interesting. Moving on a north/south line so likely
a satellite but that's a very short trail for one. Must be very high.
If that isn't just a sun glint of short duration but runs the entire 20
minutes then it would take weeks to make one orbit. Orbiting once a day
it would move 5 degrees in 20 minutes far more than the FOV.

Your time of April 20th could be GMT or or Eastern Daylight time. If
the latter it could be shortly after midnight (early morning of the
20th) or shortly before midnight (late evening the 20th), two different
days GMT time. I ran all possibilities through the minor planet checker
and as I expected nothing was found, just too high an inclination for
all but a handful of known asteroids. For satellite checking precise
time and location is needed.

In any case that's the best M51 with an uncooled digital camera I've seen.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Rick, taken about 11PM EST on 20 April.

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:07:30 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:



Robert Price wrote:
From Blue Knob, PA. 20 April 2007. Taken with an NP-101 at F/5.4.
Single 20 minute exposue with a Hutech Canon 350D at 400ASA. No dark
frame. Reduced 50% and cropped. Note two smaller galaxies to the
right and something that left a trail towards the bottom..

That object is sure interesting. Moving on a north/south line so likely
a satellite but that's a very short trail for one. Must be very high.
If that isn't just a sun glint of short duration but runs the entire 20
minutes then it would take weeks to make one orbit. Orbiting once a day
it would move 5 degrees in 20 minutes far more than the FOV.

Your time of April 20th could be GMT or or Eastern Daylight time. If
the latter it could be shortly after midnight (early morning of the
20th) or shortly before midnight (late evening the 20th), two different
days GMT time. I ran all possibilities through the minor planet checker
and as I expected nothing was found, just too high an inclination for
all but a handful of known asteroids. For satellite checking precise
time and location is needed.

In any case that's the best M51 with an uncooled digital camera I've seen.

Rick

I ran that time through the minor planet prediction site and came up
empty. It is likely one of those polar satellites that spends most of
its time way out but zips in every few weeks for a low pass before
heading back out over a pole for weeks at a time. I don't know if those
are covered by the satellite finding programs or not. I've never gotten
one. I see one in about one in three of my shots and would spend all my
time trying to ID them if I got one of those programs. So I cuss them
out and go on. I've had a couple similar to yours when imaging at high
declinations.

I doubt it is a low orbit one in sun glint. It has too sharp of a cut
off at either end. Sun glints fade in and out, sometimes abruptly but
not just on off like yours. That has to be due to the shutter opening
and closing. Those programs need a pretty exact longitude and latitude
as parallax can be severe on satellites. In the 60's I imaged Echo 2
only a quarter mile from where a friend did yet the track was several
degrees offset in the photos. It really surprised us that only a
quarter mile (east/west) would make that much difference.

Rick


Robert Price wrote:

Rick, taken about 11PM EST on 20 April.

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:07:30 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:



Robert Price wrote:

From Blue Knob, PA. 20 April 2007. Taken with an NP-101 at F/5.4.
Single 20 minute exposue with a Hutech Canon 350D at 400ASA. No dark
frame. Reduced 50% and cropped. Note two smaller galaxies to the
right and something that left a trail towards the bottom..

That object is sure interesting. Moving on a north/south line so likely
a satellite but that's a very short trail for one. Must be very high.
If that isn't just a sun glint of short duration but runs the entire 20
minutes then it would take weeks to make one orbit. Orbiting once a day
it would move 5 degrees in 20 minutes far more than the FOV.

Your time of April 20th could be GMT or or Eastern Daylight time. If
the latter it could be shortly after midnight (early morning of the
20th) or shortly before midnight (late evening the 20th), two different
days GMT time. I ran all possibilities through the minor planet checker
and as I expected nothing was found, just too high an inclination for
all but a handful of known asteroids. For satellite checking precise
time and location is needed.

In any case that's the best M51 with an uncooled digital camera I've seen.

Rick