a plane ? (photo)

Mountainsandh

Hi all, went to the Vee to photograph the rhodedendrons today. I chanced this shot even though it was sort of facing the sun a bit.

plane (2) by mountainsandheather, on Flickr

So, clouds are blown out (highlights), and looking at them on computer, I noticed this "plane" coming off the cloud... but fiddling with contrast and what not (in Windows gallery fix it thing), it does look very "drop-ey" and roundy to be a plane. Hadn't noticed anything when I took pic (so I don't know if the "steam trail" was there after), and it's the only one I took facing that way.

plane - Copy (2) by mountainsandheather, on Flickr

dark plane by mountainsandheather, on Flickr
What do you think ? Thanks !

edit : I just spotted aviation section, and realized maybe it would have been better to post there, but I'll leave the mods decide if that's suitable for here ? Thanks

edit 2 : mods I hope it's ok, I have now actually posted something very similar in the aviation section, if that's not allowed (2 very similar threads in different spots) please feel free to rectify. Thanks

Beeker

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Hi all, went to the Vee to photograph the rhodedendrons today. I chanced this shot even though it was sort of facing the sun a bit.

plane (2) by mountainsandheather, on Flickr

So, clouds are blown out (highlights), and looking at them on computer, I noticed this "plane" coming off the cloud... but fiddling with contrast and what not (in Windows gallery fix it thing), it does look very "drop-ey" and roundy to be a plane. Hadn't noticed anything when I took pic (so I don't know if the "steam trail" was there after), and it's the only one I took facing that way.

plane - Copy (2) by mountainsandheather, on Flickr

dark plane by mountainsandheather, on Flickr
What do you think ? Thanks !

edit : I just spotted aviation section, and realized maybe it would have been better to post there, but I'll leave the mods decide if that's suitable for here ? Thanks

edit 2 : mods I hope it's ok, I have now actually posted something very similar in the aviation section, if that's not allowed (2 very similar threads in different spots) please feel free to rectify. Thanks

Not a plane IMHO. It looks more like one of two things. One..a Meteor burning up in the atmosphere or, Two, some kind of reflection off the camera lens from the sun???? The sun looks like it is behind the cloud above it.
By the way nice photo and taken in a beautiful part of the world.

Coriolanus

Beeker wrote: »

Not a plane IMHO. It looks more like one of two things. One..a Meteor burning up in the atmosphere or, Two, some kind of reflection off the camera lens from the sun???? The sun looks like it is behind the cloud above it.
By the way nice photo and taken in a beautiful part of the world.

Don't think it's a visual artifact. To my (admittedly limited) knowledge it wouldn't have gone from semi-transparent to opaque the way it has. So, more than likely a meteor.

shedweller

My first thought was it was a plane heading away from the camera. The plane itself is obscured by the contrails and the contrails themselves are optically flattened due to perspective. But hey, who am i to argue!:D

Coriolanus

shedweller wrote: »

My first thought was it was a plane heading away from the camera. The plane itself is obscured by the contrails and the contrails themselves are optically flattened due to perspective. But hey, who am i to argue!:D

I thought that too, but the contrail usually expands doesn't it, rather than becoming narrower?

shedweller

I often see them thin out into spindly little threads and segment into short wiggly pieces eventually.
Like this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Contrail_with_crow_instability.jpg
But yes, they do also spread out too.

Coriolanus

shedweller wrote: »

I often see them thin out into spindly little threads and segment into short wiggly pieces eventually.
Like this:
But yes, they do also spread out too.

Wow, that's a great pic! Very interesting. I'd never seen them do anything but just fade away.

Mountainsandh

Thanks everyone, I've sent a link to the pics to Astronomy Ireland, see what they think !

In the meantime, I appreciate your opinions.

Shedweller that is one mad picture, I'm puzzled !

Mountainsandh

Also, I forgot to mention, Sheddweller, I tend not to go for the airplane simply because if I enlarge the "blob" (and you can nearly see it in the crop above as is), you can nearly distinguish little dots. Of course, pixelation I suppose, but just not pixelating remotely like an airplane shape.

Calibos

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Thanks everyone, I've sent a link to the pics to Astronomy Ireland, see what they think !

Emailing AI is like emailing a spammer selling fake viagra. You'll be hounded with emails from then for the rest of your life

Mountainsandh

Oh dear
Too late !

At least I'll be warned when the alien invasion is on.:p

stoneill

Could it be the sun affecting the CCD sensor and creating a blurred line due to camera moving?

Bruthal

Certainly looks like a meteor.

Mountainsandh

Well I left it for a while and didn't look at it, and I have to say going back to it, it really doesn't look like a light effect/camera flare/defect to me.

The rest of my photo is pretty clear, so if it was camera shake surely other bits would be blurry or slurred.

I live in an isolated spot, and even if it's not meteor shower time, if I stand outside at night, I can see lots of meteors/falling stars on cloudless nights. It's not something unusual at all, if I just spend 5/10 minutes looking up, I'm nearly "bound to see one". So I don't think it would be that far fetched that it could be a "daytime" one, seldom noticed, because too fast, but captured by absolute chance.

murrayp4

It looks like a nice catch of a fireball...

shedweller

murrayp4 wrote: »

It looks like a nice catch of a fireball...

Ya think?http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056288128

Get Cracking

definetly not a plane of any sort!

Mountainsandh

ShedDweller in fairness mine has the "drop" sort of shape to it, doesnt look much like the other pics over Dublin.
I'm disappointed that I got no reply from Astronomy Ireland (I do get their newsletter though ), maybe it means they didn't think much of the photo.

I checked at the time and the flights passing over this area didn't really yield anything, but I wouldn't mind having another look if someone knows of a site that would keep archives of the last while (this was on 22nd May, at 12.40 daytime, I was standing at The Vee looking South-Westish towards Ballyduff/Cappoquin/Lismore areas.

I don't think there were any flights headed South at that time, only 2 flights that should have run parallel to my photo's point of view. The closest was a flight headed towards Waterford town that should have flown over the Galtees so a fair bit North of where i was standing.