9/P Tempel facing Deep Impact Mission

clic for 50% size 1950 x 1313 (290 kB)


About this Image

Comet 9/P Tempel now shining at approx mag 10.5 has been selected for the NASA Deep Impact mission.
On July 04 this 6.5-kilometer wide comet will be hit by a one-meter long spacecraft at about 10.2 kilometers per second, while both are 133.6 million kilometers away from Earth.
It should produce a crater of approx 100 m diameter. The mother space ship will image the impact and take infrared spectra.

The coma now is quite faint, but widely extended to approx 0.2 degree without internal structure. The field is full of faint background objects.

Below you find a closeup on the comet in 100% site

Even below you find a closeup on the galaxy group NGC 4762 (bottom right) and NGC 4754 (up left) in 100% site
north is at 1 o clock, west is left.


Technical Details

Optics

410mm Cassegrain in prime focus at f/3

Mount MK-100 GEM
Camera SBIG STL-11000M at -15C, internal filter wheel
Filters Astronomik LRGB
Date May 02, 2005 21:30 UT.
Location Wildon/Austria
Sky Conditions mag 5 sky, high transparency, temperature 20 C
Exposure L:R:G:B = 25:5:5:5 min (5 min sub-exposures);
Processing Image aquisition in Maxim DL4.10; calibration in ImagesPlus;
further processing and combining, curves, color balance in Photoshop; Noise reduction by Neatimage;