What's this?

I was trying out my new camera one evening in July and took some pics of the brightest object I could see. Perhaps it's a satellite? I was facing North and am in South West England. When I looked at my pics on the computer and zoomed in, I thought that something near the lower right of the 'satellite' looked too 'metallic' and regularly shaped to be a star so I adjusted the contrast in Irfanview and highlighted the 'thing'.
I'm no photography expert so please excuse the quality and please be kind when commenting on the photos. I think you will have to find a way to enlarge the images first. It's probably of no significance but how cool if it were.......... Any suggestions for making improvements would be welcome.



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i dont really know what to comment on since i dont have any experience with your camera, my assumtion is that your focused to far towards the object in question and distorted the picture, to me youve captured light which may in fact be a star or satellite.

reply to post by jenny52


Could this be a planet like Venus or Jupiter? Is there any amateur astronomers out there who would know what planets were out there?
Good picture anyways.

Many thanks for the replies. The camera is a Fuji FinePix S5700 - can't afford better on my wage ......... I too thought it might have been Venus.
I'm hoping that someone will come along and edit the images to show the 'thing' more clearly.
Thanks again.

The free programme Stellarium Can be used to identify stellar objects and planets. Try it tho add ur own location on the pref page.

As far as I have observed ; Objects in LEO/MEO appear like stars which move in arcs in the sky, typically from West to East depending on your latitude and the inclination of the objects orbit wrt the equator. They move quick when low and slower when further out, they vary quite a bit in brightness - sometimes you can get a bright one, or the ISS which is really bright.

Ocassionaly if you are lucky they "flare" up and get real bright, sometimes several times. Often these flare ones travel South to North in "polar" orbits - they are worth looking for. Objects beyond MEO appear to move the opposite direction.

Regarding the picture, it is bright and cameras usually struggle to expose dull stars so it may be Jupiter/Venus. Without several hundred times magnification Jupiter is much smaller than the large disc shown, which is likely a result of Camera autofocusing incorrectly (try setting focus to infinity), I think perhaps the camera focused closer - perhaps twigs?

Check the viewing location at the same time tonight for trees in the way. Try changing the focus to infinity.

Thanks for taking the time to reply STRINGUE. I downloaded Stellarium and found that I had photographed Jupiter.
I'm working on how to set the camera to infinity etc.
I think I'll save for better equipment .........