Deep Impact
by Scott Loucks
Photographer Comments:
10 minutes, 0.28 m
SCT/ST-402ME at f/3.3, 40x15 sec stacked and shifted frames,
false color
July 4th, 2005, New River, AZ
The collision of NASA's Deep Impact probe with comet Tempel 1 is
captured here (see light curve below).
This image was used on the BBC television program "The Sky
at Night" with Sir Patrick Moore.
See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/proginfo.shtml
Brightening of the comet
due to the probe impact was not visually noticeable at LAMP
Observatory.
However, by plotting the delta magnitudes measured against time
(Delta magnitudes via Astrometrica
minor planet software) the impact brightening was unambiguously
detected.