star trails and mystery streak

I am headed to northern Arizona in a week, so even though we have too much light pollution in the east, I tried star trails. This was about 30 min. Battery died, so not sure. But I found one streak not following the pattern. Since planes travel the sky pretty fast, and the unusual streak is quite bright, I am a little confused. BTW, the camera was facing east.
1) any ideas on the streak?
2) any suggestions on setting to get the right exposure in the west.
4) do I want camera noise cancellation on? (I have a 30D)

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It could be a satellite, or a plane, I have captured a plane streak on a camera with a P&S 15 sec exposure. But it had lots of "dots" in the streak where the strobe was flashing.
Could it be a long meteor? though it seems very consistent for that.

See if the space station was in your neighborhood last night.

Most probably a plane, since there's a kink in the line. It doesn't matter that it's a long exposure, if it's a bright enough light, it'll register in the shot.

Thanks for the ideas. I attributed the "kink" was related to barrel distortion, though this was at 24mm so that shouldn't be too bad.

It may be barrel distortion...
There are a lot of items that travel across the sky that are visible.
You can go to this link to find the specifics.
http://www.heavens-above.com/

Shooting star (meteorite) maybe??

The trail of the unknown objective compared to the star trails is suggesting it could be a satellite.

What was your exact shooting time and location (or zip code)? That information might help to confirm (or eliminate) satellites.

This was shot about 10 miles east of Allentown, PA (Allentown is 18104). The exposure ended on July 25, at 10:23 pm (exif says hour later, but it is not set on daylight savings time).

buddy4344,
My guess is a small plane with its landing lights on, as it just seems too bright for a satellite.

As for noise reduction with long exposures, if you are running on camera battery I suggest you turn it off. It can be done later in software if needed, without waiting another 30min for a 30min exposure

Here is the chart for your location on July 25. These are all objects of a visual magnitude greater that 4.5. (Lower number is brighter) In very clear air you should be able to see magnitude 6 with the naked eye.
http://www.heavens-above.com …T&Date=39654.93​75&Mag=4.5

There is no need to guess when you see a "ufo". Just go to the website above and look it up. If you can, make the time to catch an Iridium flare. These can be extremely bright and spectacular. Great thing for kids too.

I would say shooting star.

poloman wrote in post #5993043
Here is the chart

No idea there was that much junk floating about

It is amazing, isn't it? If you look at the sky much at all, you are likely to see something going by. I see more than most, as I live in a very rural area with dark skies and little airplane traffic.

poloman wrote in post #5993192
It is amazing, isn't it? If you look at the sky much at all, you are likely to see something going by. I see more than most, as I live in a very rural area with dark skies and little airplane traffic.

I envy that, there is so much light here at night I can barley get a good shot of the moon, let alone the stars.