The attached image is a single 240 second sub from a set of about 120, in linear state and converted to JPEG for posting. I was blinking the subs in PixInsight last night and found seven subs with the trail you see in roughly the center of this attached image, just right of Alnitak.. Each sub shows the trail in a different location, in combination creating a line from top edge to bottom edge of the image. The image scale is roughly 5° x 3 1/2°. So this object travelled a little more than 3 1/2° in about 28 minutes (7×4 minutes subs). More than 3 1/2° because it’s a diagonal. I have never seen a satellite move that slowly, though it’s possible that this is the first time.
I plan to platesolve the image, check the time of capture in the FITS header, then look for the object in Sky Safari at that time. Unfortunately I’m at work so I can only post about it right now.
So, is it possible that this is a satellite given the apparent speed, and if not, what kind of processing workflow should I use to feature it?
by EastAcanthisitta43
5 Comments
Non-LEO satellites move slowly, and nothing else really moves that slowly, so that’s probably what it it
It is a satellite. It’s not what you want to hear, but that’s what it is
Some quick calculations based on your image, that appears to be some kind of object orbiting at an altitude of about 33,000 miles.
Without your location or time, it would be pretty difficult to pinpoint what this is.
When I was identifying asteroids and comets for research I used a program called astap to solve asteroids in the field. You will need to download a file to load, available from the minor planet center here:
[https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/data](https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/data)
It is updated quite frequently
was looking through telescope last week and a satellite drifted past. usually they’re pretty quick but this one took several seconds to pass. this was at about 40x mag (2032×0.63÷32). satellite, but WAY out there.