<p>I was taking photos of the Perseids meteor shower on 13/08/2022 in Peak District in the UK. The camera was fixed stably on a tripod, set on manual mode, taking 8-second exposures continuously.</p>
<p>When I was editing photos, I noticed 31 consecutive images showing light trails in a very small area. These images were taken between 1:52:17 AM and 1:56:03 AM, paused, and then continued from 1:56:48 AM through to 1:57:23 AM. I cut out the trails from the images and merged them in Photoshop. The result is shown below:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/HGQ91.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/HGQ91.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>Another observation is that each image only shows one trail. This means this could be one object moving very fast back and forth, or a number of objects moving in a formation passing a light source. Could the latter be Starlink satellites?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-14T22:07:40.800Z
Starlink was my first guess, but I'm not sure.
Stuart Robbins
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-14T23:58:45.897Z
@StuartRobbins https://heavens-above.com/StarlinkLaunchPasses.aspx Set the location (latitude, longitude, time zone) then use the arrows to go back and forth one day at a time, and the drop-down box to select various recent launches. I took a quick look and found several possible candidates. I'm not sure where "Peak District" is exactly and I didn't take into account the possibility that the UK uses daylight saving time. At circa 7780 m/s a five minute window means they could have spread out over 2000 km so the launch could be as much as several days old already.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-15T00:03:39.363Z
@Anthony *Beautiful Photo!*
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-15T11:17:25.937Z
@uhoh thanks for your comments. I should have clarified the location and time zone, but here is the link with the correct info: https://heavens-above.com/main.aspx?lat=53.3726&lng=-1.834&loc=Unnamed&alt=0&tz=GMT

The object(s) should be around altitude 29 azimuth 87. I will go through the list after work. This is getting interesting.
Anthony
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-16T18:07:50.850Z
On the morning of the 13th, around 0118h GMT at 50 degrees north, I saw two bright objects about 8 degrees to the right of Jupiter. They faded out in less than a minute and didn't move. A comment under [this question](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/50192/28758) suggests it was fuel particles from a rocket launch. I haven't yet investigated further.
Aaron F
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-22T10:32:46.107Z
@AaronF Yes I think I also saw that as I was messing around with camera settings. I noticed the ground was lightened up and I paused for a second then looked up. I could only see a light trail. I thought that could be a large meteor.
Anthony
<amateur-observing><photography>
What is this cluster of light trails captured on long exposure images?
Anthony
# What is this cluster of light trails captured on long exposure images?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-08-14)

I was taking photos of the Perseids meteor shower on 13/08/2022 in Peak District in the UK. The camera was fixed stably on a tripod, set on manual mode, taking 8-second exposures continuously.

When I was editing photos, I noticed 31 consecutive images showing light trails in a very small area. These images were taken between 1:52:17 AM and 1:56:03 AM, paused, and then continued from 1:56:48 AM through to 1:57:23 AM. I cut out the trails from the images and merged them in Photoshop. The result is shown below:

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/HGQ91.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/HGQ91.jpg)

Another observation is that each image only shows one trail. This means this could be one object moving very fast back and forth, or a number of objects moving in a formation passing a light source. Could the latter be Starlink satellites?

**Tags:** amateur-observing, photography

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Starlink was my first guess, but I'm not sure.  
> **username_2**: @StuartRobbins https://heavens-above.com/StarlinkLaunchPasses.aspx Set the location (latitude, longitude, time zone) then use the arrows to go back and forth one day at a time, and the drop-down box to select various recent launches. I took a quick look and found several possible candidates. I'm not sure where "Peak District" is exactly and I didn't take into account the possibility that the UK uses daylight saving time. At circa 7780 m/s a five minute window means they could have spread out over 2000 km so the launch could be as much as several days old already.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 *Beautiful Photo!*  
> **username_0**: @username_2 thanks for your comments. I should have clarified the location and time zone, but here is the link with the correct info: https://heavens-above.com/main.aspx?lat=53.3726&lng=-1.834&loc=Unnamed&alt=0&tz=GMT  The object(s) should be around altitude 29 azimuth 87. I will go through the list after work. This is getting interesting.  
> **username_3**: On the morning of the 13th, around 0118h GMT at 50 degrees north, I saw two bright objects about 8 degrees to the right of Jupiter. They faded out in less than a minute and didn't move. A comment under [this question](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/50192/28758) suggests it was fuel particles from a rocket launch. I haven't yet investigated further.  
> **username_0**: @AaronF Yes I think I also saw that as I was messing around with camera settings. I noticed the ground was lightened up and I paused for a second then looked up. I could only see a light trail. I thought that could be a large meteor.  

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## 0 answers

