Comet 9/P Tempel now shining at approx mag 10.5 has been selected for the NASA Deep Impact mission.
410mm Cassegrain in prime focus at f/3
About this Image
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
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;