mikefulb
super member
Reged: 04/17/06
Posts: 134
Loc: Central NC
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I was imaging the moon the other night with my C8/DMK camera combo and caught this effect that startled me. It looks like the sky had split! I'm guessing its a different airmass moving in but I was curious if anyone had similar experiences?
http://msfastro.net/Images/moon_fw_0023_Rolling_Airmass.mpg
Warning - its about a 4meg download.
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Dave440
sage
Reged: 11/19/05
Posts: 446
Loc: So. FL
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Pretty cool. It's atmospheric distortion. Most often you'll see it around the edges of the moon as tiny ripples or sometimes across the entire FOV but usually not that pronounced.
Or... It could be a rip in the space time continuoum!! 
One night I was looking thru the scope at the moon and a plane crossed right in front of me and things got real wavy due to the jet exhaust and air turbulence off the wings. Too bad I wasn't imaging. That would've been cool!
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Gendo
Post Laureate
Reged: 12/12/05
Posts: 3231
Loc: Rexburg, ID
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Hmm I wonder if it was a jetplane that had passed by a few minutes beforehand, and didn't leave a contrail. Its definately a seeing type distortion, but I've never seen such distinct and parallel lines like that.
It might also just be a sort of wave motion in the atmosphere. If you think about it, we are living at the bottom of a huge "ocean" of air.
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matthijs
sage
Reged: 01/21/05
Posts: 220
Loc: 51°48'N 4°42'E
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I have seen this kind of ripple/motion once before.
This was during extremly good seeing.
When I saw this in my situation the image was as steady as an photo and only saw the ripple effect.
In your situation I also see a lot of boiling going on.
Could it be possible the boiling is there because the mirror of your scope did not cool down well enough, and the ripple is an affect of very good and steady slow moving seeing ?
It's definatly is an atmospheric seeing effect, and I dont think it's caused by an airplane.
Thanks for sharing,
Cheers,
Matthijs
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dietmar
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/21/05
Posts: 2032
Loc: linz, austria europe
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Mike,
I`m pretty sure that is was a vapour trail caused from an airplane that flew across the moon some time before.
I have seen something like this and saw the airplane.
it looked extremly interesting when it was coming out of the engine.
it had destroyed a good avi-file (which I no longer have...) I was about to take...
--------------------
clear skies,
Dietmar
www.stargazer-observatory.com
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Bob R.
super member
Reged: 07/27/04
Posts: 118
Loc: Connecticut
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Mike,
I'm weighing in on the "jet contrail". Though, with the "twist" (pun intended) that it is the wake of the wing tip vortices which can cause the air to rotate in two, parallel, contrarotating "tubes" of air for several minutes particularly if the surrounding air mass is quiet (perfect observing time). This phenomenon should present itself as two cylindrical lens effects on the seeing ... exactly what I believe your video has captured.
my two cents,
Bob R.
--------------------
Meade LX200, 25.4cm, f10, UHTC, GPS
SAC7b Camera
Adaptive optic, 7mm, f3, bino-viewer
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Gendo
Post Laureate
Reged: 12/12/05
Posts: 3231
Loc: Rexburg, ID
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Bob, you may have hit the nail on the head.
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mikefulb
super member
Reged: 04/17/06
Posts: 134
Loc: Central NC
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You're probably right - that time of night several jets did pass overhead (and really close to where the moon was).
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Gendo
Post Laureate
Reged: 12/12/05
Posts: 3231
Loc: Rexburg, ID
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Yeah I have a huge amount of jet traffic overhead here in Rexburg. Supposedly its one of the busiest crossroads in the sky right where I'm at. I unexpectedly watched a jet pass right in front of Jupiter the other night. Too bad I wasn't in the middle of a capture.
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tegea
sage
Reged: 11/29/04
Posts: 340
Loc: Gif sur Yvette - FRANCE
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Very cool to have captured this !
Extremely strange thing : I saw exactly the same thing on my screen when imaging Jupiter last week, wednesday or thursday. I thought it was a webcam bug. I was not capturing the video at that time.
Thierry
--------------------
Thierry
 - article here
- Intes MK66 Maksutov-Cassegrain Rumak
- Intes MN61 Maksutov-Newton
- Televue TV76 doublet APO refractor
- Takahashi FS-60C fluorite doublet APO refractor
- Skywatcher EQ5 german equatorial mount
http://gauthiet.club.fr/anglais/index.html
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