I got this from Sky & Telescope. I also heard from the photographer, Conrad, and will post the pictures on my site soon. ----- > Jay, > Thanks for the thread -- I now understand where some of the material > that crossed my desk came from. I could have stopped a lot of this > debate because, unlike some of the people making speculation, I had all > the data in front of me. Conrad was testing equipment, and he made > something like 6 back-to-back shots of the nebula -- only this one has > the satellites. Rule out "instrumental effects," (especially since > refractors don't produce diffraction spikes, and any equipment that did > would put them on all bright stars!). Below is a copy of a message I > sent to two colleagues, one of whom was skeptical about the picture from > the outset. > > Here's the text of that message... > > Guys, > > Before this gets out of hand you should come by my office and see the > photos that Conrad sent. There's a whole sequence of Orion (he was > testing equipment). I have all the details from him, so I have no idea > where Dale comes up with the idea that the photographer won't respond to > anyone. Conrad did not record the time precisely since these were only > intended as test shots. He does, however, have the date, location and a > rough time of each shot. Only one shows the satellites. The four objects > going east/west are almost certainly geosyncs -- from this latitude they > appear to pass right through the nebula. The polar ones are what make > this unusual. I'm not much of a satellite watcher myself, but even I > have seen objects moving in pairs, so it isn't the issue of having two > that's unusual, only that they passed right through the nebula. BTW, > drop the "diffraction" theory -- 1) this doesn't look like classic > diffraction, 2) it was a refractor, and 3) it doesn't show on the same > images shot just before and after this one! > > --D > > So, Jay, I'm still interested in what anyone can do in the way of > identifying these objects. > -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Jay Respler -- JRespler@superlink.net SKY VIEWS: http://mars.superlink.net/jrespler/skyviews.htm Satellite Tracker * Early Typewriter Collector Freehold, New Jersey