Page 1 of 1
APOD 4/26: Dots and Arrows?
Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:43 pm
by ben
What in the world do those big dots and arrows indicate? Seems like they should have been explained......
Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:03 pm
by BMAONE23
They indicate comitary fragments as the title implies the comet is breaking up. should be a real good show on the 12th of May as it passes through Cygnus.
Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:56 pm
by Pete
The red, green, and blue dots are star images resulting from combining exposures through different color filters:
http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... php?t=1218
Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:06 pm
by ben
Thank you Pete,
I understood that the arrows pointed at fragments of the comet, but the giant colored dots were really bizarre... I just visited the ESO website and confirmed your explanation.
Now I am even more surprised at the fact that the big dots didn't come in for any kind of explanation in the text.... they're a pretty dramatic component of the photo and certainly don't look like a star-trail.
Ben