Weird Observation During transit....!

[JohnP]

I noticed that in one of my avi's of the transit a strange thing happened. I've attached an animated gif of just 5-raw frames - as you can see in the middle frame it looks like some kind of 'flare' shoots out from the side of Venus. This is only on a single frame. These are unprocessed frames so I don't think it's any kind of artifact.

Can anyone explain?

Link to animation is here - it's about 100K download.

Cheers,  John.


http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.punnett/graphics/oas/Transit_Weird.gif

[ This Message was edited by: JohnP on 2004-06-15 16:49 ]

[ This Message was edited by: JohnP on 2004-06-15 16:50 ]

[Ian]

you know the beginning of "war of the worlds"...

Certainly looks interesting. Have you posted it to QCUIAG?

[Rick]

What's the time-step between frames? Is it a seeing/focus effect?

[JohnP]

Frames were captured at 5 per sec - Exposure was in the region of 1/1500 sec.

I haven't posted on QCUIAG - will do that next.

John.

[Rick]

So something that lasted less than 2/5ths of a second....

[Mike]

John can you post that single frame in full res please.

[JohnP]

The link to the raw frame (900kb) is:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.punnett/graphics/oas/venus_flare0000.bmp

cheers, John

[Greg]

Could you please show one or two frames either side of this one although you say there is nothing on them. Are the frames you are showing processed in some way or is it definitely on the original captures.
What was the equipment - video or ccd frame grabs? Did you notice any other optical effects in the filed of view not necessarily associated with Venus' disk?

[Greg]

A quick calculation would suggest that IF it is associated with Venus then the longest possible time reference for this "object" if it started on the surface of Venus would be 10 seconds. That means that it would have to be moving at some 4,000 - 5,000 kilometers per 10 seconds!!

[JohnP]

Hi Greg,

I'm in Scotland at the moment so I will post the other frames later. Anyhow, I can confirm that the frame I posted is totally raw - no type of processing whatsoever. The frames immediately before & after look identical except there is NO hint of any flares etc. just the black disk of Venus.

Cheers,  John

[Mike]

Im gonna guess it was a bird or other such object passing by.