Image of the Month - April 2005
Rosetta Fly By
On it's way to comet comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko,
the European spacecraft Rosetta approached the
Earth again on March 4, 2004, about a year after it was started. This
swing by was the first approach to the Earth, and two more gravity assist maneuvers with the Earth and one with
Mars are scheduled on the probe's route
to the comet. Furthermore, Rosetta will visit two
asteroids, (2867) Steins in September 2008 and (21) Lutetia in July 2010.
Credit & Copyright: Erich Meyer, Davidschlag Observatory, Austria
Many amateur astronomers, and even some professional observers, took the that opportunity to
capture images of the spacecraft.
Among them was Erich Meyer, who took this 15 second exposure on 2005 March 04 at 20:10 UT, with a SBIG ST-6 CCD
camera at the prime focus of the 0.6m reflector of the Davidschlag
Observatory near Linz, Austria. The telescope tracked the probe, which moved 8.5'/minute, so the background
stars appear as long trails. The bright trail close to Rosetta was caused by the 8,9mag star HIP 49194.
Image of the Month
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