A question about a comet(?) observed in recent Lasco-C3 images.

[michaelmozina]

I have noticed that starting on 1-18, SOHO's Lasco C3 images seem to show a comet (or some particle) traversing the image.&nbsp; On 1-18 it entered the image at about the 10:00 position, evidently a bit above the plane of the solar system.&nbsp; It appears to be cruising through the solar system at a very high rate of speed, and it did not crash into the sun.&nbsp; While I am somewhat familiar with the optics of the EIT equipment, I'm not all that familiar with the Lasco equipment.&nbsp; Is there any reasonable way to calculate the velocity of the object seen in that image, or is it too distorted by the lenses of the Lasco equipment at that distance to be useful? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<p>I see what you mean.&nbsp; It's definitely not noise or a background star -- it's present too consistently to be noise, moves to smoothly, and is not synchronous with the background stars.&nbsp; It's moving like a planet, but which one?&nbsp; If it's a comet, it's not a sungrazer.</p><p>Hmmm -- I'm actually surprised.&nbsp; I looked at some planetarium software, and I think it's actually Mercury.&nbsp; I was assuming that the really bright object was Mercury, but the tiny one is more consistent with Mercury's position.&nbsp; The bright one seems to be Jupiter.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[michaelmozina]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I see what you mean.&nbsp; It's definitely not noise or a background star -- it's present too consistently to be noise, moves to smoothly, and is not synchronous with the background stars.&nbsp; It's moving like a planet, but which one?&nbsp; If it's a comet, it's not a sungrazer.Hmmm -- I'm actually surprised.&nbsp; I looked at some planetarium software, and I think it's actually Mercury.&nbsp; I was assuming that the really bright object was Mercury, but the tiny one is more consistent with Mercury's position.&nbsp; The bright one seems to be Jupiter. <br /> Posted by CalliArcale</DIV></p><p>It definitely isn't noise or a star.&nbsp; I've never seen a planet move that fast either.&nbsp; I've seen comets move at pretty high rates of speed as they plummet into the sun, but this is the first time I recall seeing anything moving at those speeds at that particularly inclination.&nbsp; It seems to be moving at an increadible velocity. &nbsp; </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<p>I really think it's Mercury, because when I pulled up starmaps for those dates, that's where Mercury was in relation to the Sun and Jupiter.&nbsp; It's pretty close to the Sun and moves quickly across the sky from our perspective.&nbsp; I was surprised that it would seem to go over the Sun, but then I looked up its inclination -- Mercury has a 7 degree inclination, which is pretty dramatic for a major planet.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[michaelmozina]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I really think it's Mercury, because when I pulled up starmaps for those dates, that's where Mercury was in relation to the Sun and Jupiter.&nbsp; It's pretty close to the Sun and moves quickly across the sky from our perspective.&nbsp; I was surprised that it would seem to go over the Sun, but then I looked up its inclination -- Mercury has a 7 degree inclination, which is pretty dramatic for a major planet. <br /> Posted by CalliArcale</DIV></p><p>Thanks for your help.&nbsp; I'll have to go back and watch some previous images of Mercury in SOHO images.&nbsp; You are undoubtedly correct about it being Mercury, but it seemed to be moving extremely fast to me. &nbsp; </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Thanks for your help.&nbsp; I'll have to go back and watch some previous images of Mercury in SOHO images.&nbsp; You are undoubtedly correct about it being Mercury, but it seemed to be moving extremely fast to me. &nbsp; <br />Posted by michaelmozina</DIV><br /><br />Yes the object above the sun in Mercury. Of course the really bright one to the left (with the overfilled photon buckets creating the horizontal lines) is Jupiter.</p><p>Mercury appears to be moving fast, because, well, it is moving fast .&nbsp;It has the fastest orbital speed since it has to get from one side to the other in a mere (Edited)&nbsp;44 days. In addition, because it is at inferious conjunction, it is on our side of the sun, which makes it's motion across the sky even faster.</p><p>BTW, the reason you see it fading out is that it just passed inferior conjunction (passing between us and the sun) so was a "new" Merury, like the New Moon. The reason it didn't fade out all the way is because of it's high inclination, the bottom of the crescent was illuminated at all times. The minimum was 0.7% illumination, and the minumim magnitude was +4.6.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>MW</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[michaelmozina]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Yes the object above the sun in Mercury. Of course the really bright one to the left (with the overfilled photon buckets creating the horizontal lines) is Jupiter.Mercury appears to be moving fast, because, well, it is moving fast .&nbsp;It has the fastest orbital speed since it has to get from one side to the other in a mere 88 days. In addition, because it is at inferious conjunction, it is on our side of the sun, which makes it's motion across the sky even faster.BTW, the reason you see it fading out is that it just passed inferior conjunction (passing between us and the sun) so was a "new" Merury, like the New Moon. The reason it didn't fade out all the way is because of it's high inclination, the bottom of the crescent was illuminated at all times. The minimum was 0.7% illumination, and the minumim magnitude was +4.6.&nbsp;MW <br /> Posted by MeteorWayne</DIV></p><p>Thanks for the specific info.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Thanks for the specific info.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />Posted by michaelmozina</DIV><br /><br />NP</p><p>Jupiter is now in the "right" side of the sun. The bright stars above are on the Constellation Capricorn. The single star above the sun (on 1/23) is beta Capricornus, and the pair of bright stars above is alpha Capricornus. This is the location of the radiant of summer's CAP (alpha Capricornid) meteor shower. It's a fun pair to look at low in the south during the summer. They are about mag +3.6 and +4.2, and are close enough it's a good eyesite test to split the pair.</p><p>Meanwhile, the sun remains very quiet.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[michaelmozina]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>NPJupiter is now in the "right" side of the sun. The bright stars above are on the Constellation Capricorn. The single star above the sun (on 1/23) is beta Capricornus, and the pair of bright stars above is alpha Capricornus. This is the location of the radiant of summer's CAP (alpha Capricornid) meteor shower. It's a fun pair to look at low in the south during the summer. They are about mag +3.6 and +4.2, and are close enough it's a good eyesite test to split the pair.Meanwhile, the sun remains very quiet. <br /> Posted by MeteorWayne</DIV></p><p>I'll take a closer look at the images for the last few days.&nbsp; That's useful positioning information about the location of the summer shower.&nbsp; I'd like to remember that tidbit of infor and be able to locate it this year. </p><p>FYI, did you have any other thoughts about my question about a combination of factors having an influence on the planetary bleeding effects?&nbsp; Feel free to post your response in which ever forum you like.&nbsp;&nbsp; I am very curious about your answer, particularly after watching Jupiter this time in the Lasco images, but there are just too many details about the Lasco images that I don't understand well enough to know if these influence might affect the planetary ring bleeding affect we observe in the image. </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>

 

[michaelmozina]

Do you happen to recall the address of the Java applet that plots the position of objects in the solar system by date?&nbsp; I used to have it bookmarked, but for some reason it didn't transfer over in the last Firefox update. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Do you happen to recall the address of the Java applet that plots the position of objects in the solar system by date?&nbsp; I used to have it bookmarked, but for some reason it didn't transfer over in the last Firefox update. <br />Posted by michaelmozina</DIV></p><p>&nbsp;I used to have a good one, but it expired so I deleted it.</p><p>I have this one, but it is of limited uses since it starts at a specific date, and the pause/slow/fast controls don't work for me, and there's no reverse.<br /><br />http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/ssv.html</p><p>&nbsp;This site gives good views at a specific date. Just select "Solar System" from the dropdown list for all the planets, individual spacecraft can also be selected. BUt there's no motion capability.</p><p>http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I'll take a closer look at the images for the last few days.&nbsp; That's useful positioning information about the location of the summer shower.&nbsp; I'd like to remember that tidbit of infor and be able to locate it this year. FYI, did you have any other thoughts about my question about a combination of factors having an influence on the planetary bleeding effects?&nbsp; Feel free to post your response in which ever forum you like.&nbsp;&nbsp; I am very curious about your answer, particularly after watching Jupiter this time in the Lasco images, but there are just too many details about the Lasco images that I don't understand well enough to know if these influence might affect the planetary ring bleeding affect we observe in the image. <br />Posted by michaelmozina</DIV><br /><br />I answered it pretty thoroughly in whatever thread it was that we discussed it in. It's an excess of electrons being read out along a horizontal line in the arrays. As the planet moves up and down across the sky different horizontal lines have their buckets filled to larger or smaller amounts. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Yeah; it's basically just what happens to a CCD imager when it gets overexposed.&nbsp; The same effect occurs with consumer-grade digital cameras all the time.&nbsp; Try pointing one at a light fixture to see the effect. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>