[AZ-Observing] SMART-1 Impact Photometry
- From: Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>
- To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 15:36:31 -0400
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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