(meteorobs) Fw: Disintegrating meteor photos

Robert McNaught rmn at murky.anu.edu.au
Wed Mar 9 22:45:23 EST 2005


On Wed, 9 Mar 2005, Stein Wasbo wrote:

> Shaky star image does not seem likely. If you download the image and look
> at higher resolution than you can see on the web-page, you can see several
> stars as well defined dots in the background. Also a red light on the
> mountain in the background is shown as a dot, not a blurred image, and no
> lines.
> I don't know what it is, but as I see it, it is not likely to be a shaky
> star image.

The effect is brightness dependent.  The main object is very bright, so
the much fainter squiggles are visible.  Much fainter objects in the field
(if these are stars and not hot pixels?) will have much much fainter 
squiggles of the same form if caused by camera shake, so would not be 
visible.  It is a common effect for people who use long focal length 
telescopes in windy conditions or any other source of telescope vibration.

I'll say nothing more on the matter.

Cheers, Rob


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