Unknown objects photographed in Venus Pleiades Conjunction

[Gary]

Hi Friends. Clifford shot the following series of photos of the recent Venus Pleiades conjunction using a DSLR on unguided tripod. Upon closer inspection of the photos, there seems to be 2 unknown objects drifting across the photos.

Could they be due to some light/lens/camera effect? Or could it be some objects in our atmosphere or in space? A pair of ejected rocket booster?

Feel free to submit your guesses and your reasoning behind them to help Clifford solve this puzzle.

[kensou]

oh wow.. UFO

[Jonarsh]

Oh my... UFO! I totally believe in their existence ....

[acc]

oh wow... that's really intriguing!

[cataclysm]

Interesting!

[orly_andico]

im more inclined to believe its an internal reflection from one of the many lens elements. prosaic, but more likely.

[alweek]

probably artifact due to reflections or dust.
they move in a pair across the frame, probably in sync with the star drift.
my 2cents

[Clifford60]

Yes, it is lens internal reflection artifact. Orly and Alweek good guess, but no prize for you, haha

It moves because what Gary didn't show you (he cropped the photos) that Venus moved across the photo or the bright spot changes position, so the artifacts "moved" in the opposite direction at the "same speed".

In order for such artifact to take place, there must be a very bright spot of light, bright exposure (by aperture/time) and dark area in the photo as well as the bright spot need to be within about 50~60% coverage from the lens center. These Venus photos were take with 200mm f/5.6 + 2x teleconverter (400mm f/11), 6 seconds exposure, ISO 1600. Only photos with Venus nearer to the lens center have the artifact. Last night had proven the effect to Gary with Venus (with artifact, 5 sec), Moon (no artifact, 1/30 sec) and the stadium flood light (with artifact, 5 sec) with the same equipment.

[alweek]

Clifford, so are both light reflexes due to Venus? Or one is Venus and the other from another bright object?

[Clifford60]

Yes, both reflexes were created by one very bright light source, in this case Venus. Last night photo of Venus which was the only light source, there were 2 reflexes too. Depend on the lens and aperture, it can have even more reflexes. Once I took Jupiter with f/2 lens, it had 3 or 4 reflexes.