Strange streak discussion: 2004 Dec 7 APOD

[bgibson@compuserve.com]

I agree with some of you. The streak is without doubt the shadow

of a con - trail from a high flying aircraft falling upon lower lying

clouds. It can be seen often here in Scotland ( and in Vancouver !! )

Best wishes.

[Astro]

Another poster said it was probably the flight of an insect across the frame and I agree. If you look close at the flash at the end of the streak, it could be a bee. The bright flash is a reflection off its back or abdomen, and the lighter portion that looks like a shockwave is the rest of its body including extended wings. The dark streak was caused by its flight across the frame during the slow exposure. It was then breifly illuminated by the flash. There is a common carpenter bee in Australia that is black with a metallic iridescence which could be the culprit.

That's it.

[Douglas]

Hey Douglas, is there any chance you can do another "diff" image, this time including the water directly below the "flash"?

done http://images.isja.org/images/strange_diff_pryde_03.png

Someone mentioned a circular flash shape in the reflection of the water, and when I flip between the before, strange, and after images, I noticed it too. Maybe a diff image can bring it out?

Hmm, can't see such thing...

--
Douglas <douglas at isja.org>

[blurry]

its extra terrestrial ofcaurse

[Guest]

Douglas, you rock. But yeah, it didn't help. The "circular reflection" I saw is directly below the "flash", just as the water meets the land. I don't see it in the before and after. Thought it might be a clue, like a reflection of the "flash" to help establish its position in 3 dimensional space.

Or maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me. It's 3am now, and I should let go of this pic and go to SLEEP!

Thanks anyway, Douglas.

[ivar]

I don't know if anybody has noticed it. But do you guys know what the small object to the right of the lamppost is. It is right where the ray would intersect the pier

[Akihiro]

This website provide an answer to this mystery photograph: http://www.brainhop.com/?articleid=4540

Click on source to see article.

Though it could be wrong...

Mr Carr said the explosion could have been caused by lightning.

"But I doubt this very much - the trajectory is too straight," he said.

[Douglas]

The "circular reflection" I saw is directly below the "flash", just as the water meets the land. I don't see it in the before and after.

Ah, now I see it too.
The water is somewhat brighter right under the white car, right?
I guess that's an artefact, the water beneath the white stone at x=1035 also seems to be brighter than in the before/after-images.

Thought it might be a clue, like a reflection of the "flash" to help establish its position in 3 dimensional space.

Great idea, only came to me when reading your previous post...

Or maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me. It's 3am now, and I should let go of this pic and go to SLEEP!

It's 12:12 now, I should let go of this pic and get some work done

[Guest]

What streak? I've looked at the APOD Jpg and the online Bmp in photoshop and can't see any streak leading to the pole. Can anyone point it out?

Ian

[Peter G. Burke]

Has anoyone checked flight schedules over the area. Including the recent unknown lights?
Ice from aircraft may have caused the track, without visible remains.

Peter G. burke

[pat]

1.There is no reflection of the flash in the water. it is in the foreground, or at the light pole.
2. The flash isn't elongated. An insect near the lens could have made the streak, but not the flash, 1/20 sec exposure would have streaked.
3. Could be a contrail shadow, or film flaw, or shadow of fixtue from explodind lamp, but I lean toward contrail.

[guest]

george bush did it.

[Gurth]

What is bothering me now is how symetrical the white glow around the "explosion" is. It's very apparent in the diff pics. The streak seems it would cut right down the senter of it. Does the streak get larger as it moves away from the water? I don't want to make any assumptions.

[malasorte]

http://www.geocities.com/deep_sky_astronomy

[Physics Geek]

Most likely a meteorite caused such effect. The meteor hit an object somewhere near the lamp but not the lamp itself, therefore explaining the intact lamp. The spoilt bulbs very likely could be out of order before the event.

As for the peculairly straight line, one could say the meteor refracted against the gravity in the increasingly hot layer of air near the ground.

[Guest]

Is this a digital or film photo?

It's digital, as anyone with the appropriate software can find out. The camera used was a Canon PowerShot G3, exposure time was 1/20 s, f/5.6.

What is very interesting about this is that the flash did fire! The photographer is quite likely unaware of this fact, but it is clearly recorded in the exif data. (Modern cameras are just a bit too smart, sometimes.) Thus a new possibility emerges: Some small object, possibly an insect, has come streaking diagonally in front of the camera and then gotten caught by the flash. If the object is very close, it is also very much out of focus, hence the blurry looking flash.

- Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@math.ntnu.no>

[BeachHead]

I was eating lunch with my girlfriend in Hull, MA on sunday 12/5 at about 2 pm. We saw a steak just like the 12/7/04 APOD picture of the day. (i looked at it at 6:25 am tuesday. I don't know if it will be changed later today)

There was no rain, clear blue sky, some high altitude clouds.

Let me know if the mystery is solved.

Joe
Science Teacher

[PassingBy]

On the far right and far back of the pic, there’s a light that goes off on off, like a ‘rotating!’ lighthouse, just above the speeding boat, angle the light shining to the region of water in front of the light pole and reflect at the correct angle of incidence, the light up of the water, through the light of the pole, two things happen, 1. The light, and anything in front of it “glows” brightly and two, a shadow is cast into the moisture (air).

[PassingBy]

On the far right and far back of the pic, there’s a light that goes off on off, like a ‘rotating!’ lighthouse, just above the speeding boat, angle the light shining to the region of water in front of the light pole and reflect at the correct angle of incidence, the light up of the water, through the light of the pole, two things happen, 1. The light, and anything in front of it “glows” brightly and two, a shadow is cast into the moisture (air).
Is that a lighthouse?

[Anon]

It is a small bug that flew very close to the camera. The "flash" is the sunlight reflecting off of it.

[Doug]

I agree on the contrail. I've seen this before.

[guest]

Maybe a piece of an airplane fell in the water?

[Guest]

It looks a bit like a sun dog and an anti-crepuscular ray (or maybe a shadow off a sun pillar). It seems to be pointing toward the anti-solar point. Can those ray phenomena be reflected?

http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/anti1.htm

http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm

[TravisMS]

I saw this news story a couple of weeks ago - puts a twist on the whole thing...

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_pag ... 62,00.html

[magclem]

CONTRAIL: BEEN THERE, SEEN IT