At first I was wondering what the RGB points on the pictures are. Then I realized that it is probabli a star which was in the field of view when the comet was photographed.
If I am right, than it is the same light source taken throught blue, green and red filter consecutively and severel such exposures put together. I know that this is a standard practice in astronomy photography, but it is nice to see it in action like this
2006 April 26, Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann
- orin stepanek
- Plutopian
- Posts: 8200
- Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
- Location: Nebraska
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060426.html
There doesn't appear to be any reason known for it's being fragmented. Maybe it got clipped by an asteroid on one of it's approaches.
Orin
There doesn't appear to be any reason known for it's being fragmented. Maybe it got clipped by an asteroid on one of it's approaches.
Orin
- Pete
- Science Officer
- Posts: 145
- Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 8:46 pm
- AKA: Long John LeBone
- Location: Toronto, ON
Guys, jakub is asking about the RGB spots in the image, not about the cometary fragments!
He is right that these spots are images of stars resulting from sucessive exposures through red, green, and blue filters. Following the APOD links, you can see the same effect in images on this European Southern Observatory page. "As the telescope was tracking the comet, the stars appear as coloured trails, indicating the order in which the comet was observed in the different filters."
North is up and east is to the left in the pictures, so the stars moved from left to right between exposures, revealing the exposure order to be blue, green, red.
He is right that these spots are images of stars resulting from sucessive exposures through red, green, and blue filters. Following the APOD links, you can see the same effect in images on this European Southern Observatory page. "As the telescope was tracking the comet, the stars appear as coloured trails, indicating the order in which the comet was observed in the different filters."
North is up and east is to the left in the pictures, so the stars moved from left to right between exposures, revealing the exposure order to be blue, green, red.