Cosmic ray?

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KathyNS Canada
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Cosmic ray?

#1

Post by KathyNS »


I was shooting darks and came across this artifact on one of them. Almost every frame had one or more multi-pixel artifacts, but this was the brightest and most interesting. What do you think? A cosmic ray? Radioactive rocks under my observatory?
300sec_1x1_None_frame7_19.jpg
300sec_1x1_None_frame7_19.jpg (15.11 KiB) Viewed 413 times
This is a tight crop, with an automatic stretch, but no other processing.
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DSO AP: Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian Astrograph; ATIK 383L+; EFW2 filter wheel; Astrodon Ha,Oiii,LRGB filters; KWIQ/QHY5 guide scope; Planetary AP: Celestron C-11; ZWO ASI120MC; Portable: Celestron C-8 on HEQ5 pro; C-90 on wedge; 20x80 binos; Etc: Canon 350D; Various EPs, etc. Obs: 8' Exploradome; iOptron CEM60 (pier); Helena Observatory (H2O) Astrobin
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notFritzArgelander
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Re: Cosmic ray?

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Post by notFritzArgelander »


Just winging it here on memory of ancient dabbling in a physics lab but the track that widens looks like an alpha particle track. Alpha particles deposit more energy as they slow down in a medium until shortly before the path ends. Definitely reminiscent of an alpha particle (He4 nucleus) path. The other track is likely the recoil of the remainder of the nucleus if it's an alpha decay.

The wide 'V' suggests that whatever caused this event had a little net momentum, not much. So depending on the orientation of your detector the vertex points in a component of the direction that the incoming object was coming from. My guess would be that an incoming particle deposited enough energy in the nucleus of an atom in your detector that it was able to dump the excess in an alpha decay event with a little net momentum.

Of course this all anecdotal story telling and not worth much.....
Scopes: Refs: Orion ST80, SV 80EDA f7, TS 102ED f11 Newts: AWB 130mm, f5, Z12 f5; Cats: VMC110L, Intes MK66,VMC200L f9.75 EPs: KK Fujiyama Orthoscopics, 2x Vixen NPLs (40-6mm) and BCOs, Baader Mark IV zooms, TV Panoptics, Delos, Plossl 32-8mm. Mixed brand Masuyama/Astroplans Binoculars: Nikon Aculon 10x50, Celestron 15x70, Baader Maxbright. Mounts: Star Seeker IV, Vixen Porta II, Celestron CG5
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KathyNS Canada
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Re: Cosmic ray?

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Post by KathyNS »


Kewl! Thanks, nFA!
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DSO AP: Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian Astrograph; ATIK 383L+; EFW2 filter wheel; Astrodon Ha,Oiii,LRGB filters; KWIQ/QHY5 guide scope; Planetary AP: Celestron C-11; ZWO ASI120MC; Portable: Celestron C-8 on HEQ5 pro; C-90 on wedge; 20x80 binos; Etc: Canon 350D; Various EPs, etc. Obs: 8' Exploradome; iOptron CEM60 (pier); Helena Observatory (H2O) Astrobin
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