[FPSPACE] KPNO Deep Impact live

[DSFPortree at aol.com]

Still can't get used to not being able to forward to FPSPACE... Sorry!

David

THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL OPTICAL ASTRONOMY 
OBSERVATORY IN TUCSON, ARIZONA, AND IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR 
INFORMATION. (FORWARDING DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN 
ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.)  Lynn Cominsky, American Astronomical Society

Contact:
Douglas Isbell
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Phone: (520) 318-8214/-8230
E-mail: disbell at noao.edu


June 30, 2005

NOAO 05-06

KITT PEAK VISITOR CENTER TO PROVIDE LIVE IMAGES OF COMET IMPACT

How can you watch the planned first-of-its-kind collision between a comet 
and a spacecraft from Earth this weekend, even if your night skies 
do not allow a direct view?

The Visitor Center at Kitt Peak National Observatory plans to offer a live 
feed of the encounter between NASA's Deep Impact mission and Comet 
Tempel 1 starting this Sunday night (local time), running about an hour 
before the planned 10:52 p.m. PDT impact though about 45 minutes afterward.
The feed will consist of still images of the distant comet, and a 
frequently updated movie assembled from the individual frames.  Each frame 
will consist of a 30-second exposure taken with an electronic CCD imager 
attached to the 20-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope in the Kitt Peak Visitor 
Center observatory.

The comet feed from Kitt Peak will be available on the Internet at:
www.noao.edu/news/deep-impact

"Weather and technical gremlins permitting, we intend to post an image 
about every 45 seconds, and to update the digital movie every few minutes," 
said Douglas Isbell, assistant director for public affairs and educational 
outreach for the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, AZ, 

the parent organization of Kitt Peak National Observatory.  "This rate of 
imagery should match up well with the predicted gradual change in the 
brightness of the comet's surrounding cloud of dust and gas."

The live feed will be generated by synchronized computer teamwork between 
Kitt Peak Public Outreach Lead Observer Adam Block and NOAO Web Designer 
Mark Newhouse.
  
The main Deep Impact spacecraft will witness the effects of the collision 
between the comet and a copper-laden impactor probe released earlier from 
the spacecraft from as close as 310 miles, but ground-based telescopes are 
considerably farther away.  "Unfortunately, with the comet being 83 million 
miles from Earth, its nucleus is essentially a bright single point in the 
image, so we won't have the ability to see the fresh crater that Deep Impact 
is 
expected to gouge out of the comet."

As with most major ground-based astronomical observatories, including 
NOAO's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, all of the major 
National Science Foundation research telescopes on Kitt Peak are observing 
comet Tempel 1 for several nights before and after the planned Deep Impact
event.  By the night of July 8, Kitt Peak National Observatory telescopes 
will have been used for 43 nights in 2005 in support of scientific analysis 
of the planned comet impact.

This work is described in a previous NOAO press release at
www.noao.edu/outreach/press/pr05/pr0505.html

These research observations will be augmented by a special public program 
on Kitt Peak for 50 people during the night of the event, which is sold out.

Located 55 miles southwest of Tucson, AZ, Kitt Peak National Observatory is 
part of NOAO, which is operated by the Association of Universities for 
Research in Astronomy (AURA) Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the 
National Science Foundation.

For more information about Deep Impact, visit the mission's Web sites at:
deepimpact.umd.edu/ and www.nasa.gov/deepimpact



David S. F. Portree
Science writer & historian
dsfportree at aol.com
Flagstaff Arizona USA

Romance to Reality: moon & Mars plans
http://rtr.marsinstitute.info