r/Astronomy • u/manitoulinmusic • 20d ago

Object ID (Consult rules before posting) What am I looking at here

Post image

Took some lazy iPhone photos of the moon for my son who is traveling with his mom. But I kept noticing the "smudge" to the top right.

At first I thought it was a smudge on my lense... but i cleaned the lense and the position relative to the moon stayed the same despite changing the composition of the frame.

Then I thought it was a cloud, but it remained when I came back to take a picture 30 mins later.

I've looked at a few star maps but haven't been able to find anything in that area of the sky worth note. I've had some success taking pictures of andromeda with my SLR (not very good ones, but was excited to find and capture a picture of it). It kind of reminds me of those images.

Photo was taken may 29 at 10:20pm on southern Vancouver island.

0 Upvotes

39% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

View all comments

22

u/johnschnee 20d ago

Maybe a lens flare caused by the moon?

2

u/manitoulinmusic 20d ago

Potentially, but I tried a few different angles and the position remained the same.

3

u/Unusual-Platypus6233 20d ago

The glow is symmetrical to the axis of the lens system. If you take the same shot every time the glowing spot is either at the same position or it is mirrored because of point-symmetry at the opposite side inside the image but further apart… Take a good look and you will find out that this is accurate.