Description

I have become a pretty regular commenter on this forum, and I try to explain away some of the more obvious objects that are mistaken as UFOs/UAPs. I took this image tonight in Murrieta, California, at 7:22PM PDT of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS using my Canon 7D Mk 2 and my EF-S 17-55 lens. It is a 1.6 second exposure at 40mm; ISO 1600; f/2.8; tripod mount. I would like to use it as an example of what can be caught and not seen at the time of capture.

At the top of the image is an aircraft. It is flight AAL1669, and I was aware it was in the frame when I took the photo. You can see the red lights on the left wing, the white strobes on both wingtips, the anti-collision light on the belly, and faintly see the green light on the right wing. See this image (https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D5612AQECWkmELb-26w/article-cove…) for reference.

What I couldn't see, and only showed in the image, is the little white streaks. They are satellites — most likely Starlink satellites given the quantity — that are being lit by the sun just below the horizon. I count four obvious streaks, and at least three faint ones, in just a 1.6 second exposure.

I'm not here to be "the debunker", but I would like to see it as education for members of this subreddit that don't often take this type of photograph: whether with a phone or with a DSLR. Keep watching the skies, and keep posting your images and videos.

I also put another image on my Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/2qnQwDx) account that I annotated. It was taken a few minutes after this image and shows eight satellites, an aircraft, and the Messier object M5.

Comet C\/2023A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (https://preview.redd.it/mxayxlxzguud1.jpg?width=1705&format=pjpg&auto…)