Observational Mishaps - Unusual Appearance

List of images in which the appearance of "familiar" objects (such as stars, galaxies, etc) is not what one would expect:

guider jumping: stars appear as double images.

earthquakes: stars appear with trails due to motion of telescope from earthquakes.

occulting dome: a distorted stellar image plus a bright partial doughnut-like feature around the star.

deflated airbags - loss of support of primary mirror: stars appear very non-circular, but rather triangular in shape (due to the 3 hard support points of the primary mirror).

"intergalactic battle": infrared, stellar image with bright loop features all around it.

internal reflections: multiple, well-defined, offset rings (doughnuts) around bright stars.

"squiggle": unusual appearance of an otherwise familiar satellite or meteorite trail through the image (see meteorites/asteroids/satellites page) - satellite trail with wavy pattern perpendicular to the direction of motion.

IR problems: infrared image with multiple problems: circle shaped ghost images of bright star (small and large size), wavy interference patterns, stripe across image, and dark blotches

You may also check out a list of all the compiled images, or go back to the main directory.