Hi All,

As the PI for an International Team to Image 9P/Tempel 1 Comet for Nasa’s Deep Impact Mission, I took some images of the Comet Using Rent-A-Scope in New Mexico Skies, and remote controlled from my home in Dayton, Ohio.

Arnie Rosner from Rent-A Scope approached me to ask If I was willing to share my Data with other observers, I agreed and hence our International Team was formed only 2 hours before impact.


We stayed in constant contact via Yahoo Messenger conference via the web,

each team member watching the images live as they downloaded from the CCD camera.

DIRAS Team Member were as follows

Mr. John Chumack, DIRAS Principal Investigator

for NASA’s STSP Deep Impact Mission
The Chumack Observatory
MPC #838 Dayton Research Station
http://www.galacticimages.com

Mr GianLuca Masi representing the Bellatrix Observatory & Planetarium Of Rome, Italy.
http://www.bellatrixobservatory.org

Mr Arnie Rosner, Rent-A-Scope Director, and Arnie donated the telescope time free of Charge.(Many Thanks)

http://www.arnierosner.com

Mr. Liebrecht R. Venter, Researcher & Photometric Reduction Specialist

300mm Ritchie F7.8 @prime focus + SBIG CCD + Bisque Paramount
A series of 180 sec exposures

Our Gif Animation can be seen at this link...
The Comet’s core brightening is clearly visible....

http://www.bellatrixobservatory.org/9p_deepimpact.gif



Another page of our data is dedicated to the photometry below



http://mak-newt.com/visitors/tempel-1/tempel-1.html



Attached to this e-mail is an image set showing before and after impact as well.

Our image and animation has been released to the World Wide Press.

I will continue working on Data reduction and the data will be submitted to the Deep Impact Mission as well as the MPC shortly.

Some of my previous images are already on the Deep Impact Mission site,

Check the month of June for images under John Chumack & Arnie Rosner or New Mexico Skies team.

Thanks to all of the Team members for your support during this great science gathering event.

Preliminary data shows a brightening of approximately 2 magnitudes or less, but definitely noticeable as a gradual steady brightening approximately 6 to 9 minutes after actual impact and leveling out after about 15 minutes post impact.

Sunday Nights Impact was an interesting and fun COOLaboration!!!!


Best Regards,
John Chumack
Principal Investigator
Deep Impact Rent-A-Scope Team
NASA's STSP member

Attached Images

DirasTeam_small.jpg (98.9 KB, 0 views)

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Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Thanks, John. Your image is the first one by an amateur astronomer that I've seen that clearly demonstrates the moderate increase in magnitude that the rather dim comet has undergone. The caption for the HST image on this site mentions a four fold increase in brightness, which is less than two magnitudes. My feeling that NASA and the popular press overhyped this event as a visual experience has apparently been justified. So far only a relatively modest number of observers have reported seeing a brightening visually and they were at dark sites and using fairly large apertures. The impact was obviously not visible to the naked-eye as some have claimed or even through giant binoculars.

Dave Mitsky

__________________
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

mighty fine work

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"We are all on our backs in the gutter... Only some of us are looking at the stars."

thanks for posting these images

I observed the comet visually on july 2 from a dark site through an 8 inch dob and found it quite a difficult object....didnt get a chance to observe after impact..wonder if it has faded in brightness again