FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] SMART-1 Impact Photometry

[Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>]

Soon after the impact, Andrew Cooper posted a link to a time-lapse sequence by 
an amateur with a C8 and a Webcam.  His name is Peter Lipscomb, and he resides 
in Santa Fe.  He very quickly replied to my query about the brightness of the 
impact, and gave me permission to forward his message to this mailing list.

Based on his and the CFHT team's estimate of magnitude 5, it sounds like it 
would have been easily visible in a small telescope.  Stars that are no 
brighter than magnitude 5 can be seen next to the moon's bright limb right 
before or after occultations.

That's not the answer I wanted to hear.  Since we were clouded out, the "sour 
grapes" part of me wanted to hear that the impact was not visible.

Tom

---- Peter Lipscomb <pslipscomb@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
HI Tom,

Thanks for your message.

I converted the AVI to BMP for the .gif composition and when I opened 
the BMP frame in Maxim DL 4.53 and examined the brightest pixed for 
measurement I got a reading of 4.889 magnitude.

I suppose it might be useful to load Maxim with specific characteristics 
of the ToUcam Pro 740, but I don't know where that info is online. Do 
you have a pointer on that?

In any case, Pierre Martin of the CFHT team gave an estimate of ~5 mag 
for the impact flash. So, I am pretty close as is.

Clear skies (once we loose this crazy monsoon),

--Peter



Tom Polakis wrote:
Hi Peter,

Many people I know have looked at your impressive animated GIF of the SMART-1 
impact.  We were clouded out here in Arizona, and wondered if we would have 
been able to see it visually with a large telescope.  Is there any chance you 
did (or can do) any simple photometry on your images?  Can you give a magnitude 
estimate -- even one with a precision of one magnitude or so?  Thanks.

Tom Polakis
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