Description

Got this one weird photo with 2 moving lights (and other lights) in the top leftish area caught on a 20 second long exposure that were missing in the photos taken before and after. My buddy and I were out camping. I didn't notice anything in person, but noticed the lights after reviewing the photos.

Very aware that these are just lights, but I thought I'd put this out there to see if anyone has a potential explanation or have run across anything similar. I just haven't run across something like this before in astrophotography.

Satellites, planes, or meteors leave straight streaks. It seems too high to be a drone and only would have been up there for 20ish seconds. Also considered the tripod getting bumped but that would affect all of the stars in the photo. Not making some grand claim here, just curious!

Just from photography experience, it looks like the lights were a consistent brightness (not flashing) and hovered in the areas where the light is bright and were moving around where the light is less bright.

Time ~12:30am 8/9/23

Location: Colorado overlooking Jones Mountain from the north side.

Screenshot of the raw image with details. Upper left (https://preview.redd.it/ubcnh3duzwhb1.png?width=1008&format=png&auto=…)

Previous photo without lights (https://preview.redd.it/a1xlo4ja0xhb1.png?width=1002&format=png&auto=…)

Photo from after with lights missing again (https://preview.redd.it/wvmfwqyn0xhb1.png?width=995&format=png&auto=w…)

Blank from DSC05876 (https://preview.redd.it/7rujxeehzwhb1.jpg?width=1800&format=pjpg&auto…)

Overlayed (https://preview.redd.it/jwa2hgehzwhb1.jpg?width=1800&format=pjpg&auto…)