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Re: Unknown object in M15 image on Nov 27, 2024


 

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Hi Peter,

Thank you so much, that¡¯s very interesting; I had no idea that could happen.?

It was the first image I took with the Seestar and, being new to stacking procedures, I let it proceed without saving the subs. I think the object, if it was real and so faint, probably wouldn¡¯t have shown on the individual subs anyway.

Thanks again, and it shows how much care should be taken to eliminate all the possible vagaries of electronic images.

Best wishes,

John



On 29 Dec 2024, at 15:39, Peter Birtwhistle via groups.io <peter@...> wrote:

John,

I think the stacking may have registered a frame incorrectly causing a faint image of the centre of M15 to appear offset to the west.

I've blinked the B-27 image with the Dec 20 image and there are (at least) three bright stars extra on the B-27 image along with the unknown object but all four objects appear displaced from bright stars (and M15) as the attached image shows.

Peter
J95

On 29/12/2024 15:11, John Hart McCue via groups.io wrote:

[Edited Message Follows]

Hello all,

I'm a new member, MPC recommended your group. I live near the North York Moors National Dark Skies Park, northeast UK, and recently bought a Seestar S50 to help them with outreach. To familiarise myself with it, I imaged M15 on Nov. 27, 2024. I didn¡¯t scrutinise the image in detail until 8 Dec., and noticed the extended object just to the right of the cluster. The image prefixed A is the stacked 19 min. R filter exposure. The Seestar¡¯s camera is a Sony IMX462, with a CMOS sensor which has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (2 MP). The image prefixed B is the same stacked image but de-noised with the Seestar's AI function on Dec. 8. My next clear nights were on 19 and 20 Dec., and I imaged M15 again with approximately the same length of exposure. The sky transparency on Nov 27 was slightly better than that on Dec 19 and 20, but there was no sign of the unknown object.

Using and the Skychart software (CdC),I estimate the object's J2000 position as 21h 29m 27.9s, +12 deg. 11' 44¡±, with approximate error 5¡±, and a rough magnitude of 16 error 1, though I don¡¯t have a lot of experience estimating cometary magnitudes.

I web-searched for M15 images, and also searched the British Astronomical Association's Deep Sky Gallery (of which I am a member) with no sign of the object so no obvious identification. I also searched the deep sky databases on the software Cartes du Ciel (Skychart), again to no avail. I was observatory code 937 in the northeast of England, but have now moved house about 15 miles to the east.

MPC have just told me that they could not locate any known objects at my given position and date and suggested, as I mentioned, that I post a message to your group. MPC said maybe someone can track down archive images of the region near that date.?

Best wishes for a happy new year,

John


<B-27Nov2024+Dec20M15.png>

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