Chris Peterson wrote:Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:Is the star effect (diffraction spikes and a circle) new? I first noticed this about a week ago in "Orion, Gas, Dust and Stars." I've only seen diffraction spike by themselves before that I can recall.
And what is that object in the lower right? It appears mirrored about midway up the photo above when the image is magnified.
Regrettably, there appears to be no technical information about this image at all (I wish such images were rejected for APOD consideration). Therefore, we can't easily access the original data or know the mapping between filters and colors. So basically, all we get is a pretty picture that teaches us little. And which makes it hard to answer good questions like you ask.
I'm willing to say that it is very likely the diffraction spikes that also include a circle are fake. Looking at the large size image, you can even see the real diffraction spikes underneath the fake ones. Note also the diffraction spikes emanating from the two stars outside the field at the upper left and lower right. Those are definitely real diffraction spikes. Note that they are much less crisp looking. They are a bit blurry for the same reason the stars are blurry: atmospheric distortions. So for this reason I say that the very crisp, sharp spikes are generated.
The small cyan colored thing on the right is almost certainly an artifact and if I had to guess I would say the lower one is being caused by the bright star off the right side of the image. The upper one is probably also caused by a bright star which you can just barely see off the edge directly horizontal to it, as with the first one.