Object in the sky
Rohan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi everyone,
I took a shot of the walk into Cobh (Ireland) from the bridge outside my apartment on March 1st, at 21:49pm (according to the information the camera stamped on the photograph). While I was taking the shot I thought there was a fairly bright star up in the sky, but when I zoomed in on it a bit I realised it has a curve, and is much too close to be a star, and surely it's not a planet. So, what is it?
Below is the photograph as I saw things on the night - I put in an arrow so you can see what looks like a bright star. Underneath that I've zoomed in to something like x8, using Paint Shop Pro 7, and increased the size by 400% so we can see it more clearly.
Does anyone have any idea what it might be? To me on that night, it was a stationary object in the sky, though I only stayed out for a few minutes. It was only when I got back and had a look at the photograph that I realised it couldn't be a star. It was shot using a Fujifilm S6500fd digital camera.
I took a shot of the walk into Cobh (Ireland) from the bridge outside my apartment on March 1st, at 21:49pm (according to the information the camera stamped on the photograph). While I was taking the shot I thought there was a fairly bright star up in the sky, but when I zoomed in on it a bit I realised it has a curve, and is much too close to be a star, and surely it's not a planet. So, what is it?
Below is the photograph as I saw things on the night - I put in an arrow so you can see what looks like a bright star. Underneath that I've zoomed in to something like x8, using Paint Shop Pro 7, and increased the size by 400% so we can see it more clearly.
Does anyone have any idea what it might be? To me on that night, it was a stationary object in the sky, though I only stayed out for a few minutes. It was only when I got back and had a look at the photograph that I realised it couldn't be a star. It was shot using a Fujifilm S6500fd digital camera.
...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
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That would be my guess
Really? I didn't think I'd be able to get anything but a point of light for Venus with just a digital camera. I suppose it must be - anything else would have been moving, and this wasn't.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
"Zooming in" with photo editing software is not the same as zooming in optically. The computer makes guesses about what pixels go where and by the time you made the enlargements you made it's just a loose semblance of what the actual object was.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Erie UFO sounds familiar to me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfAzaDyae-k
It was actually taken on the rail bridge just outside the apartment, facing directly east. I can't remember what the exposure time was, but I was just aiming at getting a good shot of the popular walk along the quay into town at night, when the fog is incoming.
Druhim, that's an awesome video. I certainly don't believe it's some kind of craft - it was too stationary. I think the best explanation is that it's Venus.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
(seriously though, I'd say it's just a star)
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
Today's xkcd is remarkably on time and on target today.
Here is a virtual picture of the eastern night sky at 01 March 2010, in Cobh at 21:55 GMT.
Venus is not there, Saturn is but it's too far south for your picture otherwise the moon would be in the field of view also.
I don't think it's a star or planet. Are we positive on time, date and bearing of the picture?
I would find it highly unlikely to be a star. It is low on the horizon and it appears to be pretty foggy there at the time the picture was taken, so the chances of a star shining through that are slim.
It could be a moving object. Remember there are two directions the object could be moving and you wouldn't be able to tell from your perspective.
Here's NASA's skywatch app that runs through the 366? orbiting things we can see
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/JavaSSOP.html
Its about 2% complete since I started running on March 1st, 21:00 -> 23:00 and there's already one sighting identified. I'm sure other people can have fun plotting where the ISS would turn up and watch for it.
Streaming 8PST on weeknights
Definitely not. Planes do fly relatively close over Cobh, but I've always seen them more to the south, just outside the harbour. Besides, this object was definitely stationary in the sky for the time I was out snapping photographs, which was ten minutes or so (can't remember for sure).
What software is that? And yeah, it was March 1st, 21:49pm when it was taken. The moon was seen to the south, in this photograph here, taken a few minutes earlier -
If I was staring straight at the object, I would turn directly right and see this view. The moon is slightly off-centre at SSE or so. The fog was coming in quite thick and heavy that night, as it often does in Cobh.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
Well, based on how long you said it was up I'm fairly confident it wasn't an Iridium or anything else in LEO; they just move too fast. It could however have been something higher up in GEO, but I doubt it since it's bright.
Edit - must remember the spoiler tags in future
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
It would have to be in GEO (geosynchronous earth orbit) to stay in sight that long. If it was in LEO it would be visibly moving. You can easily see Iridium sats moving for example.
GEO objects tend to be smaller on top of being much further away. It's not impossible though.
The OP stated he only looked at it for a few minutes. We have no reason to believe it was stationary.
Landing lights are directed forward, so if you see them, the plane will almost certainly be moving in one of those two directions. Plus, even when a plane is relatively close, the lights don't appear to move much at all. They really do just appear to hover stationary for a lot longer than you would expect.
Is it a plane? I can't really say, but given that you are east of an airport with a runway that is oriented NNE, I would suggest that lights in the sky being an airplane on approach for landing is a definite possibility.
Seriously I was thinking man-made satellite.
I was out taking photographs for about ten minutes, and it was present and stationary throughout. I asked the same question on Irish boards.ie, in the astronomy section, and they have deducted that it is in fact, Arcturus. It does seem to fit based on the image masc.box posted earlier, and if you look close at the full image you can see dots of light that represent the stars Izar and Muphrid to it's left and right. With this image below, it even represents the same shot of the sky we saw in masc.box's software -
Mystery solved! Why is it showing up as anything other than a point of light, though? I know Arcturus is big, is it because of the distortion of the atmosphere? I'm also very surprised that my digital camera was able to pick it up in such detail.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
as far as why it's not showing up as just a point, I'm no expert on the matter but stars appear to twinkle to the naked eye because the light gets bent slightly by air currents in the upper atmosphere
so perhaps what you're seeing is simply a result of that distortion
The same thing happens with the moon, and your second shot is a good example of that. The moon reflects light from the sun, and the sun is a star.
With a film camera using a really low ISO, it WOULD be just a tiny point. Digital sensors are good and getting better, but they still do funny things sometimes.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten