Night sky long exposure light trail

[jarlrmai]

Connecticut

Article:

They emerge in late November to December.
[..] They fly when temperatures are above freezing ..

A native moth called the Bruce spanworm has an identical biology and development to the winter moth. These two species are able to mate and produce offspring.

Source: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/CAES/DOCUMENTS/Publications/Fact_Sheets/Entomology/Winter_Moth_Operophtera.pdf

only iffy bit is it was below freezing in Cornwall that day from 6 pm on.

https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/ct/cornwall/KDXR/date/2023-11-12

Really we need a local entomologist, there is also the possibility they fly if disturbed even the the temps are lower.

 

[Mendel]

Really we need a local entomologist, there is also the possibility they fly if disturbed even the the temps are lower.

I don't think they physically can.

 

[deirdre]

I don't think they physically can.

Can you understand this paper (i dont have access to full thing, and i have no idea what i'm reading. But it sounds like it backs you up) ??

i dont know which bit to quote, as it's kinda greek to me. sorry.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1694338

 

[nmarsollier]

I am even more interested to see the raw images taken directly before and after this. There appears to be something else "streaking" in the upper right. Either no light source or very faint. May simply be reflected from lights

 

[nmarsollier]

Since there seems that there are no other light sources, and that the possibility to be a bug is reduced by clima conditions

It is possible that could be some animal more reflective ? not sure a white bird, bat or something similar ?

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

A bird or bat doesn't seem likely. The track is too thin. Even the smallest bat would have to be awfully high above the camera... and thus out of the headlight beams. Also there are squiggles and a tight loop. It doesn't make sense for a bird or bat to follow that kind of path.


I think we're back to plant parts. I've realized that the camera was positioned in the gore (triangular piece of land) between the two roads. Not on the side of Dunbar Road.



Which means the car headlights must have been in the right position for longer than I thought. Once the car turned that slight left corner, they had a straight shot at the camera... and the air above the camera.




In addition to floating seeds (or pappus if you please) it might be a leaf from one of the nearby trees on the side of Dunbar Road. Falling leaves can take a complex path.

Also, if we're thinking in 3D, the thinner part of the track might mark a time when the leaf was higher above the camera and the thicker part might mark when the leaf had fallen closer to the camera.

Questions:
What type of trees are those?
How big are the leaves on those trees?
Could it be a part of a leaf?
Could a leaf have drifted all the way from the side of Dunbar Road to the air above the camera? Kind of a long shot.



At this point my preferred explanation is that this streak was caused by a drifting cattail seed. In that case the thin part of the track marks the point when the car was most distant and the thicker part of the track marks the point when the car was closer. The illumination would be dimmer and brighter, in other words.

The weather report says wind speed was zero. We shouldn't take that too literally. We should also consider that passing cars would disturb the air. There are no cars going past at the moment this long exposure was taken, but couldn't the wind from a passing car lift cattail seeds into the air and leave very slight vortexes?

I think that there may have been very slight air currents, vortexes... whatever... and the seed (pappus) was drifting in a complex pattern not far above the camera. It wouldn't have to be in best focus.


I've captured this new frame which shows another part of the pondside plants. Are these cattails?

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

Wait. Pappus is not the right word.

https://torontobotanicalgarden.ca/blog/word-of-the-week/botanical-nerd-word-pappus/

Pappus: A modified calyx made up of a ring of fine hairs, scales, or teeth that persist after fertilization and aid the wind dispersal of the fruit, often by forming a parachute-like structure. The pappuses of an inflorescence may form a ‘clock.’*

Pappuses are characteristic of plants in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). A well-known example is the dandelion whose pappuses act as parachutes to carry the seeds on the wind. Pictured above are the seeds of sow thistle, another plant in the sunflower family.

Cattails are not in the sunflower family. So what is the right word? I don't know. What I've seen: down, seed hairs, fluff, cottony fluff and fluffy seeds.

 

[Ann K]

Cattails are not in the sunflower family. So what is the right word? I don't know. What I've seen: down, seed hairs, fluff, cottony fluff and fluffy seeds

For cottonwood trees, I see the seeds referred to simply as fluff. It's long hairs on the seed capsule.

Just when we thought it was safe to put away our snow shovels, parts of Chicago are being inundated with white stuff.
It’s piling up along curbs and the edges of sidewalks, coating plants like spiderwebs and sticking to the skin.
Yep, it’s the annual appearance of cottonwood fluff, and if you were thinking this year’s showering seems excessive, you’re right. It is.

Content from External Source

https://news.wttw.com/2023/06/02/what-fluff-it-s-holy-cow-year-cottonwood-and-here-s-why
(Video in the article).

The term "fluff" is also used for cattails, and is also formed by hairs on the seeds ...but the fluff is noted to be useful for both pillow stuffing and for tinder.
https://morningchores.com/uses-for-cattails/

 

[Easy Muffin]

I made an error with the light streak in the bottom right. It's neither the Lufthansa nor the Southwest plane.

I originally thought OP's location was farther away from the road, somewhere on the field, and aligned the streak with the trees in the foreground. Switching to a position close to the junction Cornwall Bridge/Dunbar however shows that the light couldn't possibly be caused by either plane because they would have been more towards the centre of the scene. They're towards the northwest but the streak as it turns out is almost due east.

So that all but rules out the two planes I said were likely candidates. Oops

If we are are looking at a pair of oncoming headlights then it would probably have to be a car driving west on Tichnor Rd. The problem I found with this is that there's not really an obvious way for them to be visible from the camera's location. I also don't know how they would appear to float in the air with no discernable terrain below it.

But moving back to the airplane explanation I've now got something else on offer:

I looked at the other raw images and in the last one there's a line of red dots in the bottom left corner. These look very much like an aircraft's strobing beacon light so I was a little bit surprised when I didn't find a plane in that spot (that is, in the correct position in relation to the stars when viewed from the cam's location) at the time stated in the Exif data. Weird.
But then I did find a matching plane in the right place albeit something like 11 or 12 minutes earlier.

So assuming that the camera clock is off by that much in all pictures, then the original photo would have been taken around 23:44 local/04:44 UTC. Which makes me pivot towards this plane here, an American 737.



It was coming in to land at Hartford, making its base turn and descending through 3,000 ft. That would also explain what kept bugging me about the other two planes - that streak really doesn't look all that much like a cruising plane, it's too bright. But a landing plane at low altitude would have its landing lights on, and if the time's correct then it was shining them in the general direction of the camera.

It'd be nice if OP could check the time on the camera. If it really is off by that much then I think we found a pretty good explanation for that bit of the mystery at least.

 

[Ann K]

I looked at the other raw images and in the last one there's a line of red dots in the bottom left corner. These look very much like an aircraft's strobing beacon light so I was a little bit surprised when I didn't find a plane in that spot (that is, in the correct position in relation to the stars when viewed from the cam's location) at the time stated in the Exif data. Weird.
But then I did find a matching plane in the right place albeit something like 11 or 12 minutes earlier.

Could the light streak be just the strobing lights themselves? Are they (or something upon which they could reflect) within the line of sight of the camera? Because that could explain the abrupt end of the line of lights, and would also be independent of camera timing or aircraft.

 

[Pendleton]

I made an error with the light streak in the bottom right. It's neither the Lufthansa nor the Southwest plane.

I originally thought OP's location was farther away from the road, somewhere on the field, and aligned the streak with the trees in the foreground. Switching to a position close to the junction Cornwall Bridge/Dunbar however shows that the light couldn't possibly be caused by either plane because they would have been more towards the centre of the scene. They're towards the northwest but the streak as it turns out is almost due east.

So that all but rules out the two planes I said were likely candidates. Oops

If we are are looking at a pair of oncoming headlights then it would probably have to be a car driving west on Tichnor Rd. The problem I found with this is that there's not really an obvious way for them to be visible from the camera's location. I also don't know how they would appear to float in the air with no discernable terrain below it.

But moving back to the airplane explanation I've now got something else on offer:

I looked at the other raw images and in the last one there's a line of red dots in the bottom left corner. These look very much like an aircraft's strobing beacon light so I was a little bit surprised when I didn't find a plane in that spot (that is, in the correct position in relation to the stars when viewed from the cam's location) at the time stated in the Exif data. Weird.
But then I did find a matching plane in the right place albeit something like 11 or 12 minutes earlier.

So assuming that the camera clock is off by that much in all pictures, then the original photo would have been taken around 23:44 local/04:44 UTC. Which makes me pivot towards this plane here, an American 737.



It was coming in to land at Hartford, making its base turn and descending through 3,000 ft. That would also explain what kept bugging me about the other two planes - that streak really doesn't look all that much like a cruising plane, it's too bright. But a landing plane at low altitude would have its landing lights on, and if the time's correct then it was shining them in the general direction of the camera.

It'd be nice if OP could check the time on the camera. If it really is off by that much then I think we found a pretty good explanation for that bit of the mystery at least.

Wow. Yes, apologies for all the chasing! It was 11 min fast on the camera clock.

 

[Gary C]

One other possible light source, security lights.
When I set up my telescope at night I invariably have to find an overlapping set of shadows so the high intensity security lights that seem to be mandatory on American farms don't ruin my night vision. It's often enough to set up my gear on the shadowed side of my car.
If this is the case a moth, plant debris, or even an escaped party balloon could be in full illumination for the period that if floats in the camera's field of view. I saw at least one nearby farm in the overhead photo of the shooting location. There might be others nearby, close enough to illuminate our mystery object.
Thoughts?