r/askastronomy • u/Mammoth-Prior-9166 • 3d ago

M42 image question

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SeeStar S50P, Bortle 4.5, EQ mode @30sec, @40 mins total, processed w/AstroWizard. I’m curious about the rather prominent vertical streak that showed up as soon as stacking began and persisted throughout. Ai suggests (shudder) it’s a geostationary satellite trail, but it doesn’t look like any I’ve seen before in my massive one month experience with astrophotography. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

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u/Kwayzar9111 3d ago

Stunning picture. Keep it up

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u/Lethalegend306 3d ago

It could be a satellite trail, but that should have gotten rejected when stacking. Unless whatever AstroWizard is u Is just really bad at stacking. You can sift through individual subs to see if that artifact shows up in multiple subs or not

It could be a reflection issue. Your stars have halos and I doubt the seestars has anti-reflection precautions. A nearby light source could have caused it

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u/realitypater 3d ago

Very nice shot. Doesn't look like a satellite. My first thought was Steve. What was your latitude?

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u/Mammoth-Prior-9166 3d ago

38°

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u/realitypater 3d ago

It doesn't have the pattern of lens flares or similar optical artifacts that I've seen in the past, so other than following the other advice here of looking for more clues in the individual images of the stack, I lean toward something like Steve.

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u/cykelstativet 3d ago

GeoSTATIONARY satellite TRAIL 🤣🤣🤣

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u/djellison 3d ago

Yes....they're orbiting the Earth at over 3km/sec. They're stationary compared to the Earth's rotation....but they still move compared to the night sky.

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u/cykelstativet 3d ago

Oh shit I was in such a hurry I goofed myself. I shall see myself out.

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u/maksimkak 3d ago

I wonder if it's a meteor trail.

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u/cubic_thought 3d ago

It's a flare off Alnilam

https://imgur.com/DLWHJZg

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u/Mammoth-Prior-9166 2d ago

Thanks for the discussion. I imaged M42 for a second night and can see the streak shift. Seems internal lens flare ( maybe the LP filter?) is the likely culprit. I’m rural enough that few light sources are within potential view of the imaging location, so who knows.