Currently Live on NASA TV Deep Impact [See Link In Thread]

[xrekcor]

For those who are looking


NASA TV (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/)



regards

[ving]

its funny watching them talk without sound :P sooo animated!
thnx for the linky

[tornado33]

Yep watching now , and recording on to VHS this historic event :)

[cometcatcher]

Mmm, there's a roughly 15 second delay from the Nasa TV webcast compared to the Satellite broadcast. Looks like I will see it on Intelsat 701 15 seconds before everyone else. :P

[cometcatcher]

Got im! Small impact it ain't!

[tornado33]

Hi Kevin, what telescope/camera were u using to get that pic hehehehehehe?

[xrekcor]

It did better than I expected, Just hope it's flares up enough and long enough to have a look at it tonight. I've been tracking it since the start of June. Even observed the outburst on the 24th and 25th

regards

[ving]

missed it! :(
too busy at work

[cometcatcher]

Took that with me secret 10 mile diameter dobsonian reflector. :P

Oh man it made a huge eruption of material. This comet MUST brighten dramatically. And I have clouds! :(

Just watching this live made me feel like I was 6 again when I was watching man walk on the moon.

[cometcatcher]

Amazing images and we have not seen the best yet.

[slice of heaven]

Anybody got a link to a ground based telescope with up to date pics from Earth?
Every link I've tried is not updated or I cant connect to their server.
I want a preview of what well see.

It was a nice hit though :thumbsup:

[gaa_ian]

Absolutly Awesome !!!

[Mick]

Amazing Kevin, I just caught the end of the NASA broadcast wow.

[dhumpie]

Brilliant stuff. Just got back to Brissie and suffering from the lack of sleep from an overnight flight! Too bad the skies are cloudy over here in Brissie at the moment. Anyone had a look at it through the telescope yet?

Darren

[tornado33]

This is right up there with the best astronomical events :)

[Sausageman]

WOW. just watched the live broadcast from NASA
Thanks for the link Rob.
That was the first time I have been able to connect to NASA TV.
Not going to be able to point the scope at it though, heavy cloud cover here.

Mike

[Mick]

Do you think Deep Impact will make the 5:00 News Headlines :)

[ving]

gunna give it a quick shot tonight :)

[ving]

in fact its time to go home right now... and set the scope up :D

[xstream]

Wow! That was unbelievable.
Perfectly clear skies here, just hope they stay like it for tonight.

[davidpretorius]

this was simply brilliant, the 1.5 meg adsl download link and nasa tv visual and sound was fantastic.


not quite old enough for the moon landing, but i was please to be part of it in a small way.

the yanks are keen to see what earth bound telescopes ( and also hubble ). love to see any stuff you guys have caught.


dave p

[Mick]

Now I know what it's like to smack into a comet. Send Your Name to a Comet (http://deepimpact1.jpl.nasa.gov/sendyourname/certificate.cfm?CertNum=417958&CertName=Michael%20Benedetti) Did anyone else ride Deep Impact? :)

[jjjnettie]

Wow! Sooo exciting.
I'm torn between watching and reading about it on the net, watching for it on the news, and viewing with the scope.
The kids will have to fend for themselves tonight cause Mama's busy. LOL
Jeanette

[dhumpie]

Did you guys see the movie at NASA:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/multimedia/07-03-05-movie.html

If the skies clear later I will be out looking at it!

Darren

[xrekcor]

I have started seeing hints of it already and it's 6:25pm here at present

[xrekcor]

I watched it live on NASA TV :2thumbs:

[dhumpie]

Its freaking cloudy here...arrrggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Darren

[slice of heaven]

Scopes cooled, clear skies and brilliant seeing here.
Before and after shots from Kitt Peak
http://www.noao.edu/news/deep-impact/
Live View of the Deep Impact Mission to Comet Tempel 1

[xrekcor]

Excellent clear skies here!!! too!

Darren that cloud is come up from the South East, It's cleared here now so I expect it should do the same for you shortly

ok back to the scope... I've moved everything outside :D

[acropolite]

Just saw the images on the TV news, impressive...It's cloudy here, maybe it'll clear later :prey2:

[dhumpie]

I hope so...is it very low now? I will be having dinner outside as the wifey is very tired and so am I from the lack of sleep (just got back this morning after an overnight flight).

darren

[acropolite]

I haven't tracked it, but apparently it's close to Spica. Ken has posted a chart elsewhere in IIS.

[dhumpie]

I will have a look on Sky and Telescope and see where the comet is in relation to the horizon :) They have that online starmap that even plots comets etc. Hopefully I will be home early enough to see it....

Darren

[iceman]

Pretty cool huh.. I wonder how much brighter the comet will be now..

[dhumpie]

The comet should be a go for me tonight if the skies clear. It should still be reasonably high at 10pm-11pm.

Darren

[slice of heaven]

Well I dont know if its the seeing or the impact but the comets core is easily visible in both 12s now.
Havent had good seeing like this in the last 3 weeks,they timed it well.
Too cold for the kids now, but I'm having another squiz later.
Anyone else notice any difference?

[cahullian]

Mick all my family sent our name to the comet last year. We even laminated our certificates : )

[Mick]

Sweet cahullian, we did the same. Just a bit of fun with the kids, my youngest took his to school for show and tell. It's still cloudy here, thank goodness for NASA TV. :)

[dhumpie]

Clouded over here last night so the comet was not a go. Anyone caught a peek at it last night? Reports?

Darren

[xrekcor]

Spectacular skies to start with...

I find 9P/Tempel 1 a fairly easy target in my 8" newt. Although it culminates
20-25 degree off my zenith. I've have logged it 17 times since the end of
May start of June (roughly 30hrs observing it). I wanted to spend allot of
time with it and see it under various conditions, which on a couple of
occasions have stopped me from nabbing it. Best views have been @ 85x
& 120x I tried with a 3.5mm XW @ 350x but "averted imagination" couldn't
even tease it out. I have found even with the brighter K4 Linear & Machholz
last year didn't take to kindly to high magnification.


I was able to locate 9P/Tempel 1 here (mid twilight) 2hrs 20 minutes after
impact 18:12pm local time. I confirmed that I did actually have it at 18:52pm.
When the coma became more noticeable as the sky darkened off. I couldn't
tell you the levels as I don't have the gear to measure such things. But I
have never been able to pick it up in during twilight prior to last night.
For me the noticeable change was in the nucleus and to a very slight degree
in it coma. I could easily pick out the nucleus using direct vision where
usually it's averted vision.

Unfortunately clouds came rolling in at 20:32 and that put an end to the
evening :(...

The pic is me and my son watching it on NASA TV

Regards, CS

[slice of heaven]

Good one Rob,Good to see it was visible in the 8". Did you grab any images?
I was toying with the idea of trying for it in the 8" Parks but the dob base is a basketcase and I've no tube rings yet to mount it on the EQ6.
I needed that confirmation on the cores brightness.
I too found 60x to 120x..26mm unbarlowed/barlowed 2x gave the best views.Higher mags and the comet fades out.One of those events I wish I had some quality eps. Seeing here was absolutely brilliant and totally clear skies . Final views I had were around 12.30am in the 12" Parks and though it was lower in the sky I still had good views.

[xrekcor]

No images, I dont have a camera sensitive enough yet to image something like that. Dont think the old LPI will cut it lol

regards

[slice of heaven]

Yeah,bit much for the LPI
Tracking it prior to the event made it all worthwhile.Though I couldnt follow it as extensively as you Rob,conditions have been poor here, being able to locate it in a snap and knowing its previous appearance makes a difference.

[xrekcor]

I would have to agree with you there. I think tracking it over the prior month made a heck of a difference in noticing any changes. The only time I didn't follow it was through fullmoon phase for obvious reasons. I even observed the outburst on the 23rd & 24th June. which I feel had a bigger impact on it's appearence.

regards, CS

[dhumpie]

Over here in Brissie it is still pretty cloudy. Wonder if I will get lucky tonight. If so I will see if I can pick it up in the 6"f/5. So there was not much of a change in magnitude was there Rob?

Darren

[xrekcor]

Cloudy as here too! But it looks to be doing something in the east. We're still camped out in the yard. I'm want to try imaging Neptune and Uranus. Perhap if I pack up and move everything inside... hehehe

Here's part of a post from a yahoo group.



I found it definitely easier to see, but I wonder how long that will last.

regards, CS

[fringe_dweller]

Last night, 4th july, we had good conditions at a dark sky location and we watched 9P, at mag 10.3, move a few arc minutes over the nearly 3 hours we observed it. Mainly used the 8.3" newt/dob at low power - 25mm ep. Amazing to think that increase in the m2 and degree of condensation (DC) was human made!!! :eyepop: We easily saw a very starlike point of light in the larger diffuse 2 arc minute outer coma. Sometimes the central condensation varied in brightness a lot - even disappearing completly at times - hard to tell if that was real or just the affects of seeing - i would like to think we were watching varying levels of outgassing? LOL
anyway AWESOME!
Kearn

[Sausageman]

The Kitt Peak blink was awesome, but what were the other blinks on the right hand side?

Mike

[dhumpie]

So overall there was not much of a change of magnitude. seems like comets will be comets and they are very unpredictable. but still i will see if i can catch a glimpse of it. Not looking good here though with all those clouds.....

Darren

[slice of heaven]

Only the core was brighter Darren,which I thought made the comet more obvious.
Clear blue skies again tonight ,so Ill have another squiz and check its appearance.

[slice of heaven]

:confused: Flashes from Hubbles camera?
Link from impactor
http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/deep_impact_crash_0704.html
Deep Impact Comet Crash Produces Great Big Comet Flash!

[iceman]

Have you seen the movie on this site? Simply amazing movie from the camera onboard the impactor.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02125

Also this site has some amazing pictures from the flyby mothership.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/images-flyby.html

[iceman]

Oh I just realised Slice's link above has a great movie too, showing much of the same footage.