Strange light in the sky - need advice.

Originally posted by PeanutButterJellyTime
I think what you've got is some pictures of Jupiter. Jupiter rises around sunset in the East now and is easily the brightest star in the sky. It's also a lot bigger than the other stars and just doesn't look right when you first see it due to the size and brightness.


A couple of questions:

1. What type of digital camera were you using (brand, model, etc)?
2. What setting did you have the camera on?
3. Does the camera have manual settings or can you put it in "Night Landscape" mode? You'll want to either use a tripod or place the camera on a sturdy, level surface when you use this setting because it will use the longest shutterspeed the camera has (anywhere from 2-8 seconds, most likely). Use the camera's timer if it has one so you don't accidentally shake the camera by pushing the button.

And just for FYI, your pictures have a lot of noise in them. That's the red, green, and blue pixels that are really apparent on the house. That's normal for most digital cameras. Try using the free version of Neat Image to clean up the noise. You'll notice a big difference in the picture quality.

1) Pictures were taken with a Canon Powershot A80 4.0 Megapixel camera.
2) Setting was normal, no zoom or anything.
3) You can put it in night setting mode and even capture video clips, but I wasnt using this mode.

I have some non digital cameras with telescopic lenses and bipods and all of thatstuff. I could not take non digital pictures because all the film was frozen. Maybe today.

I will check out neatimage and see if the pictures look any different.

Could be Jupiter, but looks really weird in the pictures and the pictures dont represent really what I seen with my own eyes.

Also the moon happens to be in the exact spot as the light on the left side when I woke up today. Coincidence maybe. Or The moon is getting involved in the conspiracy.

Originally posted by hrtw
very interesting.......hmm and weird... is there any military building near your house?

Yes. All around the area.

There is US Navy HQ and US Naval War College about 20 minutes drive from me.

There is Quonset Point where the C-130's are stationed and hosts a super airport about 40 minute drive.

And about 45 minutes North there is an Air Force Base in Falmouth Massachussets, and it is very active. Sort of in the Cape Cod - Boston Area.

So I cant really say that there are no military base's nearby.

My local police department even has alot of assets like UAV's because you can see them flying around all the time. Sometimes you can even hear them buzz over your house.

And there is hardly a time when you cant see an airplane, helicopter, UAV, or jumbo jet in the sky around here.

If you take more pictures use the night landscape setting. Your camera is fairly sensitive to light and is used by some amature astronomers. I checked out that camera for astrophotography before I bought mine.

When you use the night settings you'll get a longer shutter speed, a bigger f-stop, and your camera will probably have some built-in noise reduction that it will use. If it's a clear night you'll pick up a lot of stars that you can't see with the naked eye.

Based on the time of night and the direction and height of the object I still believe it's Jupiter. I have been outside at night a lot recently getting pictures of Jupiter and her four bright moons through my telescope.

If you look at a star in binoculars it still appears as a small point of light. But if you look at Jupiter you see an obvious disk, or a big round ball of light. I have a pair of 15x50 binoculars and I can make out the rings around Saturn with them. See if you scrounge up a pair of binoculars and look at the object.

If it appears tonight, which it should if it is Jupiter, I will take some proper astrology pictures (the correct camera setting) with a bipod.

And I will take video if I see anything strange again. I can take up to 60 seconds of video footage.

I will get the binocs out, and I will even take some real pictures with film.





[edit on 15-4-2005 by Obfuscate]

Cool, looking forward to finding out what happens. It should be clear here so I'll get a pic of Jupiter that we can use to compare.

The light is back. This is the first picture so far. I am setting up the bipod next. This was int he night setting, although it is still evening. And I held the camera in my hand so maybe it messed it up.

This might be kind of a stupid question, but was the "WTH is THIS" object there without looking in the camera? It looks like a lens spot of some kind.

Yeah it definatly is not visible with the eye.

I know it 99% is a camera defect, but just wondering if I can correct it.

Well the supposed Jupiter moved a little since the first picture. This is not the same behavior it had last night.

Here's a picture of Jupiter that I took about 20 mins ago:




This was a Nikon CoolPix 4500 4MP on the Night Landscape setting (2sec shutter speed). I used Photoshop to reduce the image size to 640x480 and saved it as a jpeg at 50% quality to make the file size smaller (more dialup friendly )

Jupiter looks bigger in my pic but if I used a longer shutter speed I would have captured more light, so it would appear bigger.

I have to say, your pics look like either Jupiter or a bright star. Jupiter is by far the brightest object in the eastern sky now, so I'm pretty sure that's what you're seeing. Notice we both only captured one light in the sky.

On a side note, if you look at the moon now, and for the next few hours, you'll notice two bright stars above it and one bright one below that looks a little more red or orange than the other stars. The bright one below the moon is Saturn. The two above the moon are Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini. Cool site to see.

Edit:

Planets move differently than stars do. Stars will appear to orbit in a circle around the north star, Polaris. Planets are closer than stars so they move faster. They also move more laterally than stars because we are all on the same basic-shaped orbit around the sun. Your description of the light changing position a little is exactly how Jupiter will behave. If you go outside each night at the exact same time and take a picture of Jupiter with the same camera settings and with the camera in the same position, you can see how differently it moves. Venus actually traces a star shape in the sky. It's thought this is where the pentacle originated from, because both represent the power of femininity.



[edit on 15-4-2005 by PeanutButterJellyTime]

Oh well as long as it doesnt start shooting laser beams..

I will just scratch it off as Jupiter.

And im sure when it does move it is following its routine orbit.

At least now you can impress people by pointing it out and telling them it's Jupiter.

If you have binoculars and can hold them steady enough you can see some of Jupiters moons. They're hard to find in binoculars but are a cool site.

Edit:

I had a similar occurance once. Last summer I was walking down the steps after putting my kids to bed and I happened to look out the window. I saw a big, orange-pink light in the sky. I stared at it and it wasn't moving. It was bigger than any planet I've seen in the sky, and none of themare that color. It stayed in the same spot for a minute so I went downstairs, got my binoculars, and went back to the window. It was still there. It presented a definite 'disk' in the binoculars, it wasn't a point of light like a star. I decided to go get my telescope and look at it. When I put down the binoculars it was gone. I looked out the window for a few more minutes and couldn't find it again. I went outside and scanned the sky with the binoculars but I never saw it again.

The next morning I was driving to work and I noticed a spot where there had been a brush fire about a quarter mile from my house, in the direction of the object that I saw the night before. The fire was blocked by buildings the whole time and since it was dark I never saw the smoke from it. What I saw was a burning ember up in a tree.

[edit on 15-4-2005 by PeanutButterJellyTime]