Starship Asterisk*

Chris Peterson wrote:

Billsey wrote:Is that a comet just to the right of the solar mask?

Looks to me like a cosmic ray hit on the detector.

All of the bright points are cosmic rays, aren't they? I really think those should be edited out of images like this. People think they are stars or other things.

Did something interesting a while back. Using AutoCad, I drew a 1:1scale drawing of the solar system. I modeled the planets and their associated moons to scale 1unit = 1'. Then, just for fun, I copied the Jupiter system with the 4 large moons and rescaled it so Jupiter was sun sized. The 4 moons Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto become Mars, Mercury, Earth & Venus respectively by size and their orbital distances fit within the sun and Earth. Jupiter is a kind of mini solar system

Chris Peterson wrote:

Billsey wrote:Is that a comet just to the right of the solar mask?

Looks to me like a cosmic ray hit on the detector.

Well, i don't know what one of those would look like, so it is entirely possible. Looking back at the smear in question, it has what looks like a head at the left end with the smear trailing off behind it, and, while at first look it doesn't seem to align with the jets of the solar wind, that could be the result of being turned in the third dimension with the resulting foreshortening of the smear. It is most likely that someone else would already have reported a comet, though, if that is what I am seeing.

Billsey wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:

Billsey wrote:Is that a comet just to the right of the solar mask?

Looks to me like a cosmic ray hit on the detector.

Well, i don't know what one of those would look like, so it is entirely possible. Looking back at the smear in question, it has what looks like a head at the left end with the smear trailing off behind it, and, while at first look it doesn't seem to align with the jets of the solar wind, that could be the result of being turned in the third dimension with the resulting foreshortening of the smear. It is most likely that someone else would already have reported a comet, though, if that is what I am seeing.

These things become much more clear when viewing images as an animation rather than as a single exposure because they flicker away suddenly rather than remaining present from frame to frame. Take a look. There is a comet in this video. (Had I taken a moment to look at a video earlier I could have answered my own question about whether or not some of the bright points were stars. Clearly, stars as well as planets are visible.)

FloridaMike wrote:Nit, your picks are most entertaining, thank you.

Thanks for the kind words. I always aim for some kind of redeeming quality, even when I botch things.