The night sky

[Angel of Ioren]

Last night was quite clear, so I decided to take my camera out and take some pictures of the night sky.
Looking up, the eyes plays some interesting tricks on you, where things that aren't moving seem to move and satellites can easily be mistaken for something else. Even regular airplanes can look strange. I wonder how many UFO reports come from people that are just looking up and completely misconstrue what they are looking at. Is this why so few amateur astronomers report UFOs?
Anyway, I encourage everyone who lives away from a big city to look up at night.

Here are two of the shots I took. I still have a lot to learn about night shots, but I'm having fun.

 

[ward]

wow those a some neat shots. Night photography seems tricky.

 

[Angel of Ioren]

Especially when you're not quite sure what you're doing, as is the case with me. It also didn't help that I did this on one of the longest nights of the year. Thos shots were taken at 10:30pm and there was still some light out. I'll be buying a different lens that lets in more light, and that should make the job a little easier too.
By far, the hardest thing is to get the focus right. You need to focus manually because the camera has nothing to focus on.

 

[Polterwurst]

I wonder how many UFO reports come from people that are just looking up and completely misconstrue what they are looking at. Is this why so few amateur astronomers report UFOs?

I guess this and the fact that most amateur astronomers wouldn't want to be ridiculed. Yeah, they should be able to tell a satellite from some strange light moving eratically in the night sky, accelerating, hovering, doing right-angle turns etc. But when they do see the latter, I don't think most of them will be willing to report this at once. Amateur or not, they have a scientific hobby and maybe don't want to be called unscientific kooks. And that, in my opinion, is the reason why most of those who do see something unusual, won't report it.

I seem to remember a UFO survey done with professional astronomers. When asked if they had seen something unusual during their work, there was something like 1 percent saying yes, they did. As long as they had to state their names on that survey form. When the same survey was done anonymously, that number suddenly jumped up to 2 digits. I'll try to google that one up.

 

[exo_doc]

Nice shootin' Tex!
I can recognize Lyra in the upper right and Hercules in the lower left on the first one.
All I can make out on the second is Lyra slightly to the left.
Look south around 11:00pm and see if you can shoot Scorpio. Or wait a bit later and shoot Sagittarius with it.

 

[Polterwurst]

As long as they had to state their names on that survey form. When the same survey was done anonymously, that number suddenly jumped up to 2 digits. I'll try to google that one up.

Dang, I can't find the source of that. I know it was in one of the better UFO documentaries. But I found this on Ufology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1980, a survey of 1800 members of various amateur astronomer associations by Gert Herb and J. Allen Hynek of the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) found that 24% responded "yes" to the question, "Have you ever observed an object which resisted your most exhaustive efforts at identification?"

I think that might be the survey. 24 per cent, not bad, huh?