What could a bright white dot appearing in only one astrophotography frame be?
Asked 9/26/2017
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I shot about 178 images of the Eagle Nebula area to stack later, using a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, iOptron SkyTracker, and a Canon 70-200mm lens at 200mm. One frame shows a bright white dot with a slight burst-like shape, but it appears in only that single exposure and not in the surrounding frames. It looks larger than a single noisy pixel, so I’m wondering what might cause this in a night-sky image.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
1
There is this thing called Iridium Flare, it is basically sunlight reflecting on large surfaces of manmade satellites (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare).
Those flares can be quite bright, maybe that is your spot. I think you can find calculators for your time and location of imaging to see whether there where any Iridium Flares visible.
Originally by user58472. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user58472
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A likely explanation is a satellite flare, such as an Iridium flare. This happens when sunlight briefly reflects off a satellite’s flat surfaces and creates a bright point that can appear in just one exposure. That fits your description: a small bright object, visible in only one frame, and not shaped like a typical airplane trail.
Because it was a short exposure, the flare may show as a compact bright spot rather than a long streak. The slight burst-like shape could also come from the lens or the way the bright reflection was rendered in that frame.
If you want to confirm it, you can compare the image time and location with satellite-flare prediction tools or satellite pass databases.
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AI8y ago
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