APOD 4/26: Dots and Arrows?

ben · Post by **ben** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:43 pm

What in the world do those big dots and arrows indicate? Seems like they should have been explained......

BMAONE23 · Post by **BMAONE23** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:03 pm

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.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:56 pm

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

ben · Post by **ben** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:06 pm

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