Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Thu, 02/02/2017 - 21:43
Observed an apparent outburst event in a field star while imaging SZ Mon in a photometric B filter (80 sec integration)
The outburst seen in image sequence #146 was not present in immediate, subsequent image (#147).
The closet star to the center of the outburst is located at (VPhot)
RA: 06 50 56.01
DEC: -01 17 32.07
Preceding the outburst the V magnitude was 15.264, error 0.136.
A search on SIMBAD did not identify a star with this V magnitude.
See attached sequence of B filter FITS images converted to .jpeg
Any ideas on what this short duration event might be?
Thanks,
Mike
File Upload
FRB, SN? BH merger?
There is a star there on a finder chart. What do you suspect?
Got a FITs? Date and time? Looks round and visible.
Nothing there at 00:45 02-03 2017
Ray
Isn't that cool! Highly unlikely that it is a real star, as that would imply brightening - and dimming - by many magnitudes in just a few seconds/minutes. Usually when I see this, I immediately think of airplane lights or some other sort of human event. What I'd recommend is posting the fits image with the event, and maybe there will be a clue in the image profile. Your CCD definitely does not have residual bulk image, by the way. :-)
Arne
Well, the fact it is near the celestial equator, its possible a reflection of sunlight off a geostationary satellite. These are all located right above the Earth's equator. Since you know the time, the celestial coordinates and your geographical location, you can calculate the longitude at which that point would be above the Earth at geosynchronous distance, 35786 km. There are online lists of these satellites by longitude, so this may turn out to be a "hit"... https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=10&srt=11&dir=1
The calculations are fairly straightforward. There are websites that will convert RA/Dec at a given UT and geographic place into your local Alt/Az. Then, the angle of azimuth from your due south can be add/subtract to your geographic longitude, to get the approx. longitude of the satellite (only closely true at the poles), so you do need to adjust the azimuth for your latitude to get the delta in longitude more accurately.