Moon Anomaly...Satellite Mabey??

Hi all, i'm new here but just wanted to share a few pictures i have with you all.

Ok, a few months ago i was testing out a my new camera lens (Nikon 70-300mm AF-S Nikkor VR ED, on a Nikon D80) by taking shot of the moon. After my shoot i was checking out how much detail the new lens had picked up on the moons surface when i noticed some kind of shinny object in front of the moon. I was thinking mabey a satellite. We can definitely rule out any kind of exposure error as the anomaly shows up on about 4 different photos (in slightly different positions...as if its orbiting) and i can assure you that i havent edited the photo's in any way apart for brightening the image a little. The photo's where taken at about 1am GMT on a clear November morning/night.

Look at the moons 7 o'clock position


i287.photobucket.com...


i287.photobucket.com...


i287.photobucket.com...


i287.photobucket.com...

I'm only interested in your opinions out of curiosity really so please let me know what you think...Many thanks.

(image coding)




[edit on 21-3-2008 by Jbird]

Beautiful pics WayAboveTS and welcome to ATS. I really don't know anything about cameras, so I can't be of any technical service. However, how much time between the shots? Also of interest to me is the bright flash like thing at the top.

This appears to be a fake. Your "anomaly" has colors around it, while the original image is black and white. The so-called anomaly was probably added later.

[edit on 20-3-2008 by Neiby]

Originally posted by hsur2112
Also of interest to me is the bright flash like thing at the top.

Looks like that is Aristarchus Crater.

en.wikipedia.org...(crater)

Aristarchus is a prominent lunar impact crater that lies in the northwest part of the Moon's near side. It is considered the brightest of the large formations on the lunar surface, with an albedo nearly double that of most lunar features. The feature is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, and is dazzling in a large telescope.

As for the "anomaly"... Can't say much. The purple glow around it seems odd.

I don't see it, what are we looking for?

Originally posted by Neiby
This appears to be a fake. Your "anomaly" has colors around it, while the original image is black and white. The so-called anomaly was probably added later.

[edit on 20-3-2008 by Neiby]

I also don't believe these photo's were taken with a 300mm camera lens. A 300mm lens only has about 4.5X magnification. The detail in the photo's would need around 400X magnification to resolve. Just my opinion.

Originally posted by mythatsabigprobe
I also don't believe these photo's were taken with a 300mm camera lens. A 300mm lens only has about 4.5X magnification. The detail in the photo's would need around 400X magnification to resolve. Just my opinion.

First off, a 300mm lens on a Nikon D80 is actually around 12.9X megnification. The D80/s DX sensor provides a 1.5x crop of the image from the lens compared to a 35mm size sensor. So 1.5*300=450, and 450/35=12.9.

Second, here's a photo I took with a Nikon D300 and 80-400mm lens at 400mm:


farm3.static.flickr.com...


Mod Note: Image Size – Please Review This Link.
All images must remain at or below 680 pixels wide/tall

[edit on 21-3-2008 by Jbird]

Guys, the picture definitely isn't fake. It was taken in colour and with the exact same camera and lens that i stated. I didn't use a tripod which may explain why its not the best quality.

For those of you that cant see it, just look between the 6-7 o'clock area on the picture and you will see a small blueish light.

I'm not claiming this to be some kind of major event....i myself thinks its probably a satellite or something but i just thought i'd ask your opinions.

That's a lovely picture nataylor.

Please note, these are all the same shot.

Those of you that think it wasn't taken with a 300mm lens are probably never heard of cropping a digital image.

WayAboveTopSecret...

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reply to post by WayAboveTopSecret

Have you taken any other photos that night (or since) with that camera? Maybe there is a clitch with the camera's CCD. You said the anomaly seemed to be moving relatuve to the Moon, but did it show up in the same spot in each image (relative to the image, not the Moon).

I would be interested to see another picture of another object taken under similar lighting conditions (and perhaps using the same lens.)

[edit on 3/21/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

Originally posted by WayAboveTopSecret
Hi all, i'm new here but just wanted to share a few pictures i have with you all.

Could be a satellite or a camera reflection.

reply to post by WayAboveTopSecret


Could you please post the other photos where you saw this "anomaly"?

As far as I can see the two images you posted are the same, only the colours were slightly changed.

Guys, the images i put up here are all the same image but i just messed about with the brightness a little to make the anomaly more visable. I've got some other pictures from the same shoot that i will put up for you all asap. Many thanks.

Ok, here are three pictures that show the anomaly in different places. To me it looks like whatever its is, is orbiting the moon.

Please note: i did a 'quick fix' on these pictures just to brighten them a little because the originals are a little dark.






The pictures were taken about 30 seconds apart.

The pictures were taken about 30 seconds apart.

I can post the originals if you like but i thought i would save everybody the hassle of having to enhance the images so you can see the anomaly a little better. Thanks again.

[edit on 21-3-2008 by Jbird]

I've put the original shots here...........

s287.photobucket.com...

reply to post by WayAboveTopSecret


I am sorry, I should have made it clear that what I wanted to see were the original pictures because it looks like that pixel is faulty.

In the same way some LCD screens have dark or bright pixels (if the transistor(s) do not turn on or are always turned on to the maximum), CCD sensors on digital cameras have the same problem, they may have an element of CCD sensor that does not work as it should.

Sometimes this is only visible in extreme conditions, like on a darker photo, and some people take a photo with the lens cap on to see if their camera has some of these "hot" pixels.

Edit: I see you have posted the originals while I was making my post.

[edit on 21/3/2008 by ArMaP]

I have studied your pictures at some length this afternoon and after disecting and resizing them I have come to my conclusion...

That is a watermelon painted to look like Luna.

J/K Nice pics, that's a pretty good camera

'That is a watermelon painted to look like Luna.'

Sorry could you elaborate on that a little..i think that went a little over my head.

WATS, it really looks like a burned pixel (or sometimes called "hot pixels" or "dead pixels"). Sometimes on Digital SLRs, particularly when shooting at night, certain spots on the camera's sensor will register activity, even when there is not any.

So, for example, I recently did some night shots in my neighborhood to try capturing light trails as cars drove by. When I got back inside and started processing the the RAW files, I noticed a few small red and blue dots in almost all of the photos. Zooming in, it looked just like a small cluster of red pixels and a small cluster of blue pixels (well, a few clusters, really). I did some digging, and it turns out that sometimes the camera sensor fouls up a tiny tiny bit (this is not that hard to imagine, considering how sensitive those sensors are).

Anyway, so it ends up that I have a few spots on my sensor that always register activity (i.e., "expose" like on film), regardless of whether there is activity or not. A way to test it (and this is what I did) is to put your lens cap on, put your shutter speed on 10-30 seconds, do whatever you want with aperture, and take a shot. Then, look at your image on your computer screen. If you have some burned pixels (which most shooters outside of a 1DS MIII will), you'll notice them easily as the tiny colored spots on an otherwise black image. They will always be there, but they'll tend to only show up on slower shutter speeds and/or in very low-light shots.

The one thing that bugs me about this, though, is that it seems to move with the moon in your pics...

[edit on 21-3-2008 by Hamburglar]

[edit on 21-3-2008 by Hamburglar]

[edit on 21-3-2008 by Hamburglar]