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weird object captured from plane

Equipment Satellite
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satellite?
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Nikolaos Bafitis avatar
Nikolaos Bafitis avatar
Hello, I recently went on a flight on which I decided to take my camera to attempt to take pictures from a plane window and noticed that I captured what seemed to be a satellite but was wondering if it was possible with a wide field lens and only 10km above seal level. 

I uploaded the image below but as you can see based on the other stars the plane was shaky and so it would actually be half of what it actually is.
Yuxuan avatar
Yuxuan avatar
Nikolaos Bafitis:
Hello, I recently went on a flight on which I decided to take my camera to attempt to take pictures from a plane window and noticed that I captured what seemed to be a satellite but was wondering if it was possible with a wide field lens and only 10km above seal level. 

I uploaded the image below but as you can see based on the other stars the plane was shaky and so it would actually be half of what it actually is.

If you look hard enough all stars are doubled and each image has tiny ghost wings. Satellites are very far away and appear as point sources even for planewave’s large CDKs. I don’t think you could have captured its shape using a cellphone.
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
It's a bright star or planet. If it was moving relative to the background stars it could have been the ISS. All your stars are trailed and have wings as mentioned yuxan. It's not something weird at all.
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Most likely the ISS.
DavesView avatar
DavesView avatar
Were you over New Jersey? smile
Oscar avatar
Oscar avatar
I think it was a planet, plus some astigmatism (caused maybe by the window of the airplane, maybe you were at a rough angle when taking the pic, or maybe this a crop of the edge/corner of the photo, which should have more aberrations and stuff than the center the photo)

but the real question is, what did the OP see (with his own eyes) that made him take a picture? did he see a moving thing, or a stationary thing? or was he randomly taking pics and he saw this bright object in the frame?

the shape of satellite is impossible to take with a phone (unless it's the ISS maybe, and only the rough shape of it); the only guy (amateur APer) I ever saw taking images of the shape of sats, used a big SCT and planetary cam and even then, the sats were only like 20-30 pixels in size (maybe less)
Nikolaos Bafitis avatar
Nikolaos Bafitis avatar
Yuxuan:
Nikolaos Bafitis:
Hello, I recently went on a flight on which I decided to take my camera to attempt to take pictures from a plane window and noticed that I captured what seemed to be a satellite but was wondering if it was possible with a wide field lens and only 10km above seal level. 

I uploaded the image below but as you can see based on the other stars the plane was shaky and so it would actually be half of what it actually is.

If you look hard enough all stars are doubled and each image has tiny ghost wings. Satellites are very far away and appear as point sources even for planewave’s large CDKs. I don’t think you could have captured its shape using a cellphone.


I know it’s doubled and also I captured it with a camera, I don’t think it’s a satellite but my best guess is it’s some kind of drone
TiffsAndAstro avatar
TiffsAndAstro avatar
Looks like iss

But same pattern is repeated like bug splatter

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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Nikolaos Bafitis:
Yuxuan:
Nikolaos Bafitis:
Hello, I recently went on a flight on which I decided to take my camera to attempt to take pictures from a plane window and noticed that I captured what seemed to be a satellite but was wondering if it was possible with a wide field lens and only 10km above seal level. 

I uploaded the image below but as you can see based on the other stars the plane was shaky and so it would actually be half of what it actually is.

If you look hard enough all stars are doubled and each image has tiny ghost wings. Satellites are very far away and appear as point sources even for planewave’s large CDKs. I don’t think you could have captured its shape using a cellphone.


I know it’s doubled and also I captured it with a camera, I don’t think it’s a satellite but my best guess is it’s some kind of drone

mmmmm, probably not at that attitude
Oscar avatar
Oscar avatar
I wonder if the OP was actually talking about the line near the center of the photo; in that case, it can be a satellite

otherwise, if the OP is talking about that bright thing, it's a probably a star or a planet, because all the other stars in the image have the same winged and doubled look to them
Ian McIntyre avatar
Ian McIntyre avatar
Hope you don't mind. I took the liberty of downloading your image. I then plate solved, applied a predictive stack, stretch, zoom, ubercrop, and AI enhancement yielding the following result of the object in question.





Sorry its so blurry. I'm new to this style of processing. And you were in a plane.
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