Star or Planet Visible Near Sun? Or Lens Glare?

I was out taking pictures today of the sky, and snapped one of the sun. I got home and downloaded it, and when I clicked the picturew to view it full size, I was kind of surprised to see TWO bright objects in my picture. At first I thought it might be a lens glare, but what struck me as odd is the sun has obvious rays coming off it, and the smaller spot, looks like a planet or star, and doesnt seem to be the same shape as the bigger sun. But it is ringed in pink, I have no idea what it is.

So here it is, can any one help me figure out what this is? It is a big picture, so here is the link.





Thanks for looking!

Thank you so much for taking this picture and posting it for us (especially in the OP...phew)
I would honestly say it looks like a lens glare because it looks a little too "perfect"
However, I am by no means an expert-just my two cents
Lets see what the ATSers can come up with here....

I see what you mean.

That is interesting. I would guess a planet as well.
But I'm not that knowledgeable in this area.

hmm...I zoomed in as far as Control+ would allow me. One thing of curiosity is that a small section of cloud seems to be on top of the spot. If it were a sun glare wouldn't you see the glare over the top of clouds?

reply to post by hotbakedtater


That is an excellent photo hotbakedtater, I'd say it's an excellent photo of a planet and not lense glare.

Keep up the good work.

please disperse there is nothing to see hear. now go watch more msm dammit.

reply to post by RussianScientists


If its a planet, it must be awfully big considering its a picture taken at ground level (assuming) and how large it is compared to the size of the sun in the photo. Not to mention that if it is a planet and that large, we would have spotted in in the night time too no?

Look out maybe its Nibiru!!

I shouldn't joke, I'm sure there may be some who would actually think that.

Im no expert but lens flare seems the likely culprit IMO.

reply to post by QBSneak000

If it's that close angularly to the sun it wouldn't be visible at night but it certainly would be visible to everyone who took a glimpse of the sun.

It's a lens flare.

reply to post by Phage


Is the little one the sun or the flare? And why is it ringed in pink? I appreciate all the responses, it will help me in the future when I look at my pictures.



Does anyone have any tips on avoiding lens flare? My sister's camera is pretty decent, but it is digital.

reply to post by hotbakedtater

The little one is the lens flare. You'll get different effects depending on the particular lens and the angle from the sun. BTW, it's not a good idea to point your camera at the sun. You can wreck the CCD chip.

Here's another example. Different from yours but the same idea.

reply to post by Phage


Thank you for the advice. I hope I didnt ruin the camera, because I took another picture of the sun, too, but it was all white so I deleted it. The pictures after that one turned out OK. My sister would skin me alive if I ruined her camera!!

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by hotbakedtater

 

The little one is the lens flare. You'll get different effects depending on the particular lens and the angle from the sun. BTW, it's not a good idea to point your camera at the sun. You can wreck the CCD chip.

Here's another example. Different from yours but the same idea.

Although I agree that it's very likely not a huge planet or comet heading towards us, that picture looks nothing like the thread starters picture. Her picture doesn't even look like a lens flare to me - at all, but what would I know.

reply to post by Nventual


I used to try not to gt lens flares, but her's a pic I took a while back and had set up on my desktop:
runespider.deviantart.com...

If I'd've changed the angle a bit, it would have been more symmetrical, and similar in color to what HotBakedTater had.

Not quite. There is still the obvious flare quality to it such as the cone look of the flare that surrounds the bright dot (can't describe it any better but hopefully you get what I mean), which hotbakedtater doesn't have in her picture yet which other lens flare pictures have.

[edit on 20/3/09 by Nventual]

I don't have an EXIF viewer with me, so can you tell us what the make and model of the camera are? Also, any exposure information would be helpful. The purple fringing is probably chromatic abberation due to it being an over-exposed lens flare, but more information would be helpful.

reply to post by ngchunter


Thank you for offering your help.

It is a Kodak Easy Share dx6340.

Is there some way I can find exif data from my end?

reply to post by hotbakedtater


Thanks, you can find various free exif viewers online. Can't think of any off the top of my head though. One thing that became immediately obvious when you mentioned the model is that purple is the dominant color that shows up as a fringe in this camera's optical system.

Another sun shot with this camera, more obstructed, but the purple fringe is obvious. Also, you can see various small white specks in the blue sky due to lens flares which seem to appear in odd/random places with this lens.

Note the purple speck between the sundog and the sun (out of the shot). If that were more overexposed it might look exactly like what you have in your image.
farm3.static.flickr.com...
Another purple circle in the sky with this camera

This one settles it for me:
farm1.static.flickr.com...
Really strong purple circle as the sun is setting, had it been in the sky and brighter, it would have been exactly like your image.

reply to post by ngchunter


Thank you for the analysis. I am thinking now it is probably a flare, too. When I first looked at it, I really was surprised, and excited to share with the community here. I thought maybe it was some star or planet, there is a lot of talk of such any more.

I appreciate all the comments.

I've been saying for round a year and a half now that if I can't see Nibiru/Planet X by the end of May 2009 in Australia without using a telescope then it's not real, though I think it is......well maybe.......

Now there is just over 2 months left now and by the look of that picture I might be correct and it will be visible, bu tit should only be a tiny dot.......

I might send this photo to one of my photographic friends.....or at least read through this entire thread before doing so....eithe way thanks for the share....

If its not a lens flare, we are probably looking at a very good shot of a sundog, but it depends on wether it was visible before the photo was shot

Its possible considering the cloud type that is located around the sun

www.atoptics.co.uk...