Object: Comet Tempel 1and the Deep Impact event
Date: 7/4/05
Location: My backyard - Las Cruces, NM
Telescope: Celestron 8" SCT (f/6.3)
Guiding: None
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel @ Prime Focus using an IDAS LPS filter
Exposures: 8x30 second @ ISO-1600 taken several minutes before and after impact.
Processing: Registered and stacked using ImagesPlus.  Final processing in PS.  Both images processed using identical steps and values.
Comments: The two images show Comet Tempel 1 before and after the Deep Impact spacecraft slammed into it at over 10 kilometers per second.  Although the comet is barely visible in the images, there appears to be a sharpening and brightening of the core after the event.  ASLC visual observers at the Upham DSO site reported seeing the nucleus become more of a point source after the impact, which correlates with the image above.       

© Dave Dockery 2005