Asteroid Zoo Talk

Odd Artifact

  • bret707 by bret707

    The odd thing about the artifact that is in the lower middle field of view is that it is the same shape in all four frames, but jumps around almost randomly.

    Posted

  • scibuff by scibuff

    it is actually very usual artifact moving in the exact same motion pattern as other artifacts on other images. This is just a spec of dust (or similar) in the optics. The motion is due to telescope dithering between the individual frames - the telescopes pointing moves slightly from exposure to exposure in a prescribed to make artifact appear to move erratically which makes them easily distinguishable from real objects.

    Posted