star anomaly- any ideas?

[keith breazeal]

I was shooting the Perseid meteor shower on the 13th of August and this frame caught my eye. The anomaly isn't the right length and appears to have something else in it's motion. Never did these night shots before and just got my first DSLR.(Canon 40D)
Anybody have an idea what it could be?

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa5/KBVP/anomolyIMG_1690a.jpg

[Trainboy]

It looks a lot like a hot pixel, but stretched and going in a weird direction.
Clone stamp!

[Jim G]

It looks a lot like a hot pixel, but stretched and going in a weird direction.
Clone stamp!

A hot pixel wouldn't shift with the stars... it would be static in the frame.

[keith breazeal]

here's the inset at full size
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa5/KBVP/IMG_1690aa.jpg

[Marnault]

It looks to me like a nebula, I don't think the little "tail" on it is part of it, it looks similar to the other red splotches nearby. The reason for the slightly different length is probably because it is much fainter than the stars. But without knowing where in the sky this was pointing, it would be really hard to determine what this object is.

An object of that color following along the same path as the stars can really only be one thing, which is why I think it's a nebula. If it was anything else such as a plane, meteor, etc, it would most likely be moving in a different direction and generally much longer.

[Jeff]

My first thought was a stationary satellite but then I noticed there are a lot of static white dots and a couple of red ones too in the inset. Did you have a filter on that may have reflecting ambient lights?

[keith breazeal]

No filter and it's not totally part of some of the red noise. It's the track of an object, just not long enough. My only thought is something blocked part of the track that doesn't show in the image. It's a puzzle. Generally, the direction was southeast and about 45 degrees with an 18 mm lens setting.

[S.Horton]

It is either G-girl or Superman.

;}

[akillez]

As a rough location of the picture if you took the photo in the northern hemishpere i guess polaris is just out of shot bottom left,because of the way the stars appear to travel.

[Elphaba]

Eclipsing star?

[kjonnnn]

If these are star trails, what are the static spots?

[cdifoto]

Looks like a UFO to me.

[breal101]

Has the planet Mars been ruled out?